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In corporate matters, it has advised Corpus Sireo on a divestment of its assets to the Berlin-owned housing associations Degewo and Gesobau, in addition to acting for Berlinwasser International on the sale of its stake in Berlinwasser China Holding, ... [more]

In corporate matters, it has advised Corpus Sireo on a divestment of its assets to the Berlin-owned housing associations Degewo and Gesobau, in addition to acting for Berlinwasser International on the sale of its stake in Berlinwasser China Holding, a company that owns and operates waste-water disposal systems in China. Shearman & Sterling is another US firm with a tax team in Germany. Led by Bodo Bender, the practice has six other professionals who work on a general basis across all the tax areas, though with a focus on transactional matters. Johannes Frey has joined Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.

The firm is regarded highly by its clients, as one said: "We were very happy with their work. They had to handle a completely new legal situation for us, kind of using the law before anybody else did."

A notable indirect tax transaction this year featured advice from Bender and Douglas McFadyen, a partner in the New York office, to Dow Chemical as it sold its polypropylene business for $340 million to Braskem.

When Frey was part of the practice, he acted for Sany Heavy Industry as it teamed up with CITIC PE Advisors, a Chinese private equity company in one of the largest Chinese acquisitions in Germany: the €500 million acquisition of a 10% stake in Putzmeister Holding in March 2012. Reorganisations got underway shortly after overseen by a Shearman team.

Shearman & Sterling has a compact tax team in London, with partner Iain Scoon in charge. The team works closely with the firm's US clients but it has acquired some of its own, too."I could not be happier with their work. They are thorough and thoughtful," ... [more]

Shearman & Sterling has a compact tax team in London, with partner Iain Scoon in charge. The team works closely with the firm's US clients but it has acquired some of its own, too.

"I could not be happier with their work. They are thorough and thoughtful," commented one client.

The team is advising IntercontinentalExchange in connection with a number of transfer pricing structuring matters, and in corporate tax has been acting for a major company in the medical devices industry on all aspects of its business, particularly structuring.