Covington Highly Commended in the FT Innovative Lawyers Report Europe 2024

FRANKFURT— The Financial Times has awarded Covington a “highly commended” designation in the Practice of Law: Private Capital category in its Innovative Lawyers Report Europe 2024 for the firm’s representation of NielsenIQ in its acquisition of GfK, creating the world’s leading consumer intelligence company.

By implementing a one-step conversion from the SE into a GmbH, a novel legal approach was designed and implemented by the team of Covington’s Frankfurt lawyers led by corporate partner Henning Bloss. As no such conversion had been accomplished previously, this one-step approach set an important precedent.

The usual two-step approach (first, conversion into a German stock corporation (AG), and then into a German limited liability company (GmbH)) would have negatively affected the transaction due to the length of the implementation time required for a two-step conversion.

Now in its eighteenth year, the FT Innovative Lawyers Europe Report is a significant piece of research that is produced by the Financial Times annually aiming to recognise the most stand-out pieces of work by private practice and in-house lawyers across the region.