Niederer Kraft Frey, founded in 1937, is a Zurich-based law firm with a strong reputation in domestic and international transactions across all practice areas within financial and corporate.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm is a market leader in financial and corporate practices including banking and finance, capital markets, financial services regulatory and M&A. It also has an outstanding restructuring and insolvency practice. In banking and finance the firm advises banking syndicates on large scale project financing, and acts for a mix of borrower, arrangers and lenders on syndicated credit facilities, including as part of acquisition financing.
In financial services regulatory, the firm has experience advising on the Financial Services and Financial Institutions act, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) investigations, and fintech and Swiss derivative trading regulation matters.
In capital markets, the firm has a clear market share of IPO transactions advising issuers and underwriting syndicates. It also advises on rights offerings, convertible and exchangeable bond issuances and the establishment of covered bond programmes.
In M&A, the firm represents a mix of listed companies and private equity players as buyers and sellers on high-profile cross-border acquisitions and business combinations in a range of sectors including pharma, technology, private equity, chemicals, ticketing and insurance.
In R&I, the partners advise creditors, liquidators, and debtors in insolvency proceedings. It also advise arrangers in the refinancing of distressed companies.
Key clients
Some of the firm’s recent key clients include Credit Suisse, European Investment Bank, BNP Paribas, ING Bank, UniCredit Bank, BNY Mellon, Global blue, UBS, PolyOne Corporation and CRH plc.
Research period review: 33rd edition (2023/2024)
Throughout the research period, the banking team acted for borrowers and lenders in DIP, acquisition and corporate financing, in addition to refinancing matters. It also worked on financial services regulatory matters, namely advising financial institutions in repo and securities lending issues.
The capital markets team continued its Tier 1 work across debt and equity related matters, acting for issuers largely. Debt capital markets matters concerned investment grade, convertible and green bond issuances. In equity capital markets, the team advised clients on IPOs, recapitalizations and private share placements.
In M&A, the team represented buyers and sellers in private equity and strategic acquisitions across several industries, with the team acting largely on the buy side. It also worked on other corporate matters including mergers and expansions.
Deal highlights: 33rd edition (2023/2024)
AP Møller acquisition of Unilabs
Macquarie Group CHF 320 million 0.395% bond issuance
PolyPeptide Group SIX Swiss Exchange IPO
Swiss Prime Site CHF 2.6 billion refinancing
Client feedback: 33rd edition (2023/2024)
M&A
“100% pragmatic, solution-orientated and they 'fight' for us.”
“Super-competent team. Always very responsible and quick to respond. Super-efficient and no unnecessary extra miles.
Moritz Maurer
“Moritz is an absolute dealmaker, a M&A crack, always goes the extra-mile for us, is 24/7 available – and fun to be around. Having him on the deal gives me comfort.”
“Moritz is very strong in his client service, and his advice has served us extremely well. He is the first to come to my mind whenever I have a corporate/M&A issue."