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Dr. Wessel Heukamp

Partner

Insurance | Mergers and acquisitions | Private capital |

Very able and a leading strategic lawyer.

Chambers Europe 2016

Profile details

About Dr. Wessel Heukamp

Global head of our insurance group, Wessel deals with transactional and regulatory matters, both domestic and cross-border.

He is known for a deep understanding of the economics driving a transaction, an ability to find innovative and pragmatic solutions, a responsive attitude and a determination to get the job done as efficiently as possible.

His areas of practice include public and private M&A, corporate restructurings, privatisations, insurance and banking law. He specialises in advising financial investors, including private equity houses, and, as part of his sector specialisation, insurance companies.

As an experienced financial institutions lawyer, Wessel has developed a close working relationship with the German financial supervisory authority (BaFin).

A native German speaker, Wessel also has English, Dutch, French and Italian.

Recent work

  • Advising Cinven and Hannover Re on their: €300m acquisition of Heidelberger Leben, a provider of German retirement and life insurance products, from Lloyds Banking Group; and €220m acquisition of the Skandia life insurance business in Germany and Austria.
  • Advising: Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on the €1.165bn acquisition of Hotelbeds from TUI; and Cinven on the sale of HostEurope to GoDaddy for €1.68bn. 
  • Advising IVG on the sale of its real estate business OFFICEFIRST to Blackstone for around €3.3bn.
  • Advising ATS Beteiligungsverwaltung and the other shareholders on their sale of Ganymed, a biotech company specialising in cancer treatments, for up to €1.44bn.
  • Advising Allianz on the implementation of Solvency II in German law, the restructuring of its European group structure and the setting-up of its resolution and recovery plan.

Qualifications

Education

  • University of Osnabrück, Germany (doctor of laws - Dr iur)
  • Columbia University School of Law, New York, US (master of laws - LLM)

Professional qualifications

  • Admitted to the German and New York Bars

Academic positions

  • Teaches corporate and regulatory law at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany

Publications

  • Co-author M&A handbook – Beck'sches Formularbuch Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Author German standard book on Solvency II – Das neue Versicherungsaufsichtsrecht nach Solvency II