Noerr increases its revenue to 315 million euros in 2022

Noerr has continued its success story in the 2022 financial year. Last year, the firm’s worldwide revenue increased by 6.1 per cent to €315.2 million (2021: €297 million). Revenue in the German market improved by 7.7 per cent to €298.6 (2021: €277.3 million). €16.6 million of this was generated in Central and Eastern Europe (previous year: €19.7 million). This change was also due to the spin-off of the firm’s Moscow office by way of a management buyout in January 2022.

“Client instructions on group restructuring and a very robust transaction business were factors serving to drive our growth, as was our advice on interdisciplinary topics such as ESG, digitalisation and the energy turnaround,” commented co-managing partner Alexander Ritvay. “We are expecting business to be buoyant this year as well.”

Thanks to its focused investment policies over the last few years, Noerr was able to continue expanding its Corporate and Mergers & Acquisitions/M&A practices. Julian Lemor (Private Equity) and Andre Happel (Tax) are two respected equity partners from international law firms who will help strengthen the firm’s transactional advice.

“In these times of upheaval and radical change, our expertise in subjects that are highly relevant for companies and investors is in particularly high demand – for example foreign trade and investment controls,” commented co-managing partner Torsten Fett. “For instance, we advised a significant number of DAX companies and international corporations on their exits from the Russian market and on the sale of their Russian shareholdings.”

Notable Corporate/M&A client matters included representing the interests of various DAX companies, including Deutsche Telekom in connection with the sale of its radio tower division, Daimler Truck on entering into its cooperative partnership with DEUTZ to develop and market engines in the heavy goods sector, and Fresenius Medical Care on its planned change in legal form to a German stock corporation (AG).

A large number of international private equity companies also relied on Noerr for their cross-border activities: we advised AUCTUS Capital Partners on the sale of PharmaLex Holding to New York-listed pharmaceuticals wholesaler AmerisourceBergen for €1.3 billion and British infrastructure fund Foresight on a large-scale billion-euro project to produce green hydrogen in Germany.

Our firm also had a successful year when representing companies in court and during arbitral proceedings. Our litigation specialists once again averted model case proceedings involving capital markets law before the German Federal Court of Justice for a leading global provider of financial services and won preliminary ruling proceedings before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for automakers PEUGEOT SA and PSA Automobiles SA that are relevant for all automobile manufacturers.

Our antitrust and competition specialists helped the airline Condor prevail in proceedings before the EU General Court regarding rescue aid approved by the EU Commission and assisted US private equity sponsor KPS Capital Partners in merger control proceedings before the EU Commission to approve the acquisition of the European business of Real Alloy Group, which Noerr advised on.

In the field of digitalisation, we represented the interests of DAX-listed stock exchange Deutsche Börse AG on its agreement regarding long-term cooperation with Alphabet subsidiary Google Cloud.

The firm’s success is likewise reflected in a range of awards: the leading British legal magazine The Lawyer awarded Noerr the title of “Law Firm of the Year: Germany”, and the prestigious German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche awarded our firm first place for its advice to the Schwarz Group on setting up and expanding its waste disposal division PreZero to become one of the leading European recycling companies.

At the end of 2022, Noerr employed 620 lawyers, tax advisors, auditors and paralegals worldwide (previous year: 588), with 521 based in Germany (previous year: 482). The firm had a total of 1,193 staff (previous year: 1,172) at year-end, with 1,033 based in Germany (previous year: 993).