Noerr exceeds €250 million in revenue for the first time in 2019

Cross-practice advice for coping with coronavirus crisis

Noerr LLP achieved revenues exceeding €250 million for the first time in 2019 (€231.5 million thereof in Germany), continuing its qualitative growth course. The firm’s success was due in particular to its strong corporate business and advising companies in regulated industries, as well as its leading role in the digital transformation of the economy. Noerr is responding to the coronavirus crisis with a task force that has started early on to bundle a range of advisory services for coping with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2019 Noerr consolidated its double-digit revenue growth from the previous year and increased its revenue to €252.4 million (2018: €249.8 million), €231.5 million of which in the German market (2018: €229.4 million). In its offices in Central and Eastern Europe Noerr generated total revenues of around €21 million (2018: around €20.5 million).

“In 2019 we again succeeded in further developing the quality of our advisory business,” emphasises co-managing partner Alexander Ritvay. “In line with our strategy of concentrating our investments in strategic growth areas, we have doubled our revenues since 2010”. “All departments have contributed to this,” adds co-managing partner Torsten Fett, “but the drivers in 2019 were again very strong corporate business, advising in regulated industries and the digital transformation of the economy”.

In 2019 Noerr was again named European Law Firm of the Year und Law Firm of the Year: Germany at The Lawyer European Awards 2019 in London.

Number one in M&A in the DACH region

Noerr’s Corporate/M&A practice can look back on a very successful year. In particular, international financial investors are instructing Noerr to advise them on large-cap transactions in the German and European market. Apollo Global Management, for example, relied on Noerr’s advice for the sale of a real estate package to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC (value: almost one billion euros), as did US investor KKR for a total of five transactions in the German media market to set up the new media platform Leonine. Noerr represented the bidder 3G Capital in the bidding process for the elevator business of thyssenkrupp. According to the information service Mergermarket, with 63 completed deals Noerr was again number one in M&A advisory in 2019 among the law firms based in German-speaking countries.

Other Corporate/M&A highlights included advising comdirect bank AG on a public acquisition offer submitted by Commerzbank and Kathrein on the sale of its global antenna business to the Ericsson Group. Noerr also advised on two out of last year’s four IPOs in Germany.

Strong in advice on regulatory issues

“We have also seen very pleasing growth in advisory services for companies from heavily regulated industries and the public sector,” says Torsten Fett. For example, Deutsche Bahn instructed Noerr to review its consulting contracts, and the Federal Ministry of Economics is being advised by an interdisciplinary Noerr team on implementing its “regulatory sandboxes” strategy. Regulatory sandboxes are used to test new technologies and business models for a limited period of time and for limited areas. Experimental clauses provide the necessary regulatory freedom.

In the energy sector, Noerr advised clients including Finnish gas group Gasum on its strategic acquisition of business divisions of Linde AG in the field of LNG and natural gas logistics and Spanish investor Plenium Partners on its acquisition of five solar parks in Spain.

Digital transformation

Finally, the firm has once again demonstrated its leading role in providing legal support for the digital transformation of the economy. In a particularly significant matter Noerr has been advising the Bayer Group on the outsourcing of parts of its IT as part of the Group’s digital transformation. “This is one of the largest IT outsourcing projects in Germany in the last ten years,” says Alexander Ritvay.

Noerr Corona Crisis Task Force

Setting up the Noerr Corona Crisis Task Force and establishing the Noerr Corona Crisis Center, Noerr started to react to the emerging economic disruptions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic as early as at the end of February. The Task Force is led by corporate partner Christian Pleister.

“We have created a focused range of advisory services within a very short period of time,” explains Torsten Fett. “The focus is on advising our clients on all issues relating to coping with the consequences of the coronavirus crisis”. Noerr is experiencing strong demand for advice on distribution and employment law issues as well as on capital market law issues in connection with annual general meetings and investor relations or the numerous aid programmes for securing companies’ liquidity. “Increased need for advice is also already noticeable in the area of restructuring,” emphasises Alexander Ritvay.

The firm is poised for rising demand in the restructuring sector. In 2019, Dorothee Prosteder joined Noerr as an equity partner and Simone Schönen as an associated partner, strengthening the firm’s Restructuring & Insolvency practice group. The practice group is one of the leading practices in the market and last year advised on two of the three insolvency proceedings in the billion euro range in Germany, namely those of Condor and Thomas Cook.

As of 31 December 2019, Noerr had 573 professionals group-wide (2018: 544) and 463 in Germany (2018: 435), with a total group-wide workforce of 1,187 employees (2018: 1,132) and 995 in Germany (2018: 942).