Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
MGMP assisted Mr Renato Bersano and Cominter S.p.A. in the sale to a SPV controlled by Equinox fund (Luxembourg) of a majority shareholding in Clas S.p.A., a global leader in the production of pesto sauce from 100% Italian basil.
MGMP followed the transaction from the very first step, up to closing.
Prof. Francesco Munari, senior partner, led MGMP corporate and M&A team, with the assistance of associate Alessandro Dona and MGMP labour law team, supervised by senior partner Alessandra Maniglio.
The transaction included the execution of shareholder and management agreements, structuring new company governance to ensure continuity while developing new strategies.
MGMP assisted Drake S.r.l., fully owned by I.CO.P. S.p.A., in the process of acquiring Logistica Giuliana S.r.l. a company originated by the demerger of Siderurgica Triestina S.r.l., part of the Arvedi Group.
MGMP team was led by senior partner Prof. Francesco Munari, with the assistance of associates Andrea Bergamino and Alessandro Dona.
The transaction is framed into a broad project of environmental recovery of a former steel mill area and reconversion into a logistic facility in the port of Trieste, in agreement with a number of local and national institutions. MGMP was proud to offer its know-how and expertise in M&A, corporate, environmental and maritime law.
SUSI Partners announced the acquisition of a majority in Italian energy service company Genera Group through its flagship SUSI Energy Transition Fund, deepening its commitment to energy efficiency infrastructure investments. The target directly owns – in most cases, fully - eight SPVs managing twelve operating energy efficiency projects in Italy and Brazil. These operating projects are expected to generate, on aggregate, savings in excess of 1 million tCO2.
The transaction is the continuation of a long-standing relationship between Genera Group and SUSI Partners, exemplifying SUSI’s
partnership-based investment approach. While SUSI has invested more than EUR 400 million in energy efficiency measures through its credit platform to date, the acquisition represents the company’s first equity investment in the energy efficiency space.
The SUSI Energy Transition Fund is an evergreen fund which held its first closing in July 2020 at EUR 300 million. The fund invests in sustainable energy infrastructure with the aim to decarbonise energy production, increase the energy efficiency of existing
infrastructure, and enable the use and expansion of integrated clean energy solutions. Energy efficiency measures are an important pillar of the investment strategy, as they represent a financially attractive and cost-efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions while
enabling customers to reduce energy costs and enhance productivity.
DLA Piper as a legal advisor while Prothea acted as a financial advisor to SUSI Partners AG in the transaction, while the law firm Gianni & Origoni assisted the Genera group.
KPMG Law advised German stock listed K+S AG on the establishment of a 50/50 joint venture with Remondis Group for long-term and
resource-saving waste management solutions, aiming to meet the growing demand for environmentally sound disposal services. The
transaction is still subject to antitrust clearance.
K+S was comprehensively advised by KPMG Law partner Boris Schilmar (heading the firm’s international business section) and a team of some 20 specialised lawyers, covering M&A, corporate, commercial, antitrust, labour, environmental and mining law. Schilmar used to be an M&A partner with Simmons & Simmons and a member of S&S’ German Steering Committee before joining KPMG Law in 2018. With 2,700 lawyers worldwide, KPMG Law is increasingly visible and highly reputed in the global corporate/M&A market.
Noerr and Pinsent Masons and Tautz & Schuhmacher provided advice on this deal.
Noerr advised the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy and Pinsent Masons advised GNA Biosolutions. In addition, Patent Attorney Dr Raphael Tautz at Tautz & Schuhmacher intellectual property law firm advised GNA Biosolutions on intellectual property aspects of the recent contract with the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs to secure GNA’s
interests and protect the exclusivity of GNA’s know-how and patent portfolio. The Munich-based intellectual property law firm Tautz &
Schuhmacher has a strong focus on advising innovation-driven startup companies and is active in carrying out IP due diligence
and counselling on licensing contracts. Tautz & Schuhmacher has regularly represented and advised GNA Biosolutions in intellectual property matters over the past years. The subject of the contract is the development of COVID-19 rapid tests according to the PCR standard and the corresponding portable devices. It only takes 40 minutes from the throat swab to the result. The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices has granted the rapid test special approval. The Bavarian state government wants to use the test from January.
Cars24, an online platform which allows customers to buy and sell preowned vehicles, has raised US$200 million in its series E round, taking the company’s valuation to over US$1 billion, leading it to be an addition to India’s growing unicorn list.
The funding was led by DST Global with participation from existing investors including Exor Seeds, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Unbound.
AP & Partners acted for longer-standing client Global Car Group, operating as Cars24, with partners Arjun Sinha and Moksha Bhat and
associate Tanisha Khaitan.
IndusLaw advised Sequoia and Unbound Partners Mauritius Holdings led by partner Siddharth Manchanda, associate Rohit Jain.
It is hard to be excited when walks and takeaway coffee are the only treats left on our ‘free time’ agenda. But as ambitious professionals, we strive to progress in our careers and find joy in our personal lives.
So, what’s the secret? To do well, we have to feel good in ourselves. This results from our inner mindset. You own your personal perspective, no one can take it away: you have complete control. It is your choice and privilege to invest in yourself and thrive both personally and professionally.
Here are my ten tips, as both lawyer and therapist, to reduce stress and increase wellness and balance during lockdown and beyond.
List priorities, set realistic goals, and tackle each one in turn. Many of us are misled by a sense that we are more productive dealing with several things at once. In reality, more often than not we are wasting time and energy on re-gaining focus again and again, finishing nothing, and becoming increasingly anxious and stressed.
Set a manageable daily routine for everything, from brushing your teeth, getting dressed and exercising, to organising work meetings and childcare. This is important because the loss of our pre-lockdown routines has left many of us feeling muddled and ungrounded. We are creatures of habit and most of us thrive off having a structure in our lives.
Exercise helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression, improves sleep quality and physical fitness. Even a short, brisk walk gets your body moving and the endorphins flowing!
Take a moment to ask yourself the following question: ‘What do I need right now to feel well?’ Listen to what your inner self is telling you, and abide by your own advice.
Mindfulness is about bringing intentional, non-judgmental awareness to your mind, body and senses in the present moment, helping you to gain greater clarity, perspective and insight into the way you live and operate. Through mindfulness practices (which are now available on a multitude of free apps) you can learn to rewire your brain and break free of negative thought patterns, allowing for a new mindset, and more creativity and innovation. Mindfulness also helps restore balance to the nervous system, allowing you to recalibrate in the face of ‘fight or flight’ stress responses, so you can think more clearly, and perform better at work and in general.
Ever tried falling asleep but your mind is going at 100 mph? Join the club! Many of us race through the day in the fast lane and then expect to be able to fall asleep just like that. But our bodies don’t respond in that way. We need to slow down the pace before bed. Switch off screens, curfew emails, read, and practise mindfulness. Also try writing your own worry journal before bed. Naming and making concrete our inner demons helps put them in perspective and release their hold over us.
Carving out that essential ‘me time’ means setting personal boundaries. Block out your diary - even five minutes is better than none at all! We need to garner inner energy to have enough to share it with others personally and professionally, or we feel depleted.
Did you learn in the last extraordinary year about your real wants, needs and values? For many of us, 2020 meant a reality check on our priorities in life. We were forced to slow down and consider ourselves and others, because our mental, physical and emotional health became a concern we could not ignore. What valuable tools did you gain to help support you in tough times and how can they be integrated into your life now?
Although feeling ‘Zoomed-out’ is commonplace these days, connecting with others in a meaningful way is hugely beneficial for our mental wellbeing. With the stringent lockdown rules in place, are you getting enough quality time with friends, loved ones and colleagues? While meeting up physically with friends and family might not be possible, are you still taking the time to reach out to people?
Let us remind ourselves that we are enough just as we are. In these difficult times, it is easy to feel we aren’t being productive enough or coping as well as we should. Just remember, times are tough and you are doing the best you can.
Helen Pamely is a Senior Associate at Rosling King LLP, a Psychotherapist in training as well as a Mindfulness Practitioner (www.therapywithhelen.com; Insta: @helenpamely).
Remortgaging can feel like a chore, but with a little bit of work, you can unlock some big benefits.
Here are the top three pieces of advice I give my customers when they’re looking to remortgage.
When shopping around for a mortgage deal, it's easy to be seduced by headline-grabbing interest rates. But with so many factors to consider it can be hard to compare like for like. Some deals may include application, legal and product fees, whereas others don't.
The one thing I always advise my customers to look out for is the Annual Percentage Rate of Charge (APRC). This is an overall cost for comparison. It’s quoted as a percentage of interest payable on the total amount of credit. It takes account of all fees that you might face.
When looking at the APRC, keep in mind that the calculation assumes you will stay with the same product and provider for the duration of your mortgage. In reality, most people look to switch once every few years.
If you’re re-mortgaging before your current deal comes to an end, you may have to pay early repayment charges.
These fees are often tapered as a percentage of the remaining balance, for example, five per cent of the remaining balance if you have three years left on your remaining deal, but only one per cent if you only have one year left.
As a lawyer, you can also take advantage of your professional status and consider 'professional mortgages'.
If you leave your existing deal before the agreed period, the lender may also ask you to repay any incentives originally provided to you, such as free valuation fees, legal fees, or cashback offers. Remember to check the T&Cs when considering your options.
It may still be beneficial to move to a new mortgage deal despite having fees to pay. For example, the savings you could make over the term of a fixed deal may be more than the fee due if you exit your existing deal early. The solution that’s right for you will depend on your individual circumstances.
It’s important to think about how your future goals might impact your finances. For example, if you want to become self-employed or take a career break, you might want to consider a mortgage that gives you the freedom to take payment holidays.
As a lawyer, you can also take advantage of your professional status and consider 'professional mortgages'.
Lenders offering these mortgages will take your professional status into account and offer preferential rates. Qualification criteria typically include factors such as age and qualifications. WFS has access to a range of lenders who provide specialist mortgages for professionals and has arranged more than half a billion pounds of mortgages for professionals in the last two years alone.
For more information visit www.wesleyan.co.uk/mortgages/personalmortgages
This article does not constitute financial advice. Your mortgage is secured on your home, which may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
The past year has presented significant challenges for the legal sector.
While areas such as conveyancing have seen spikes in demand following the re-opening of the housing market and the announcement of the stamp duty holiday, others, such as corporate segments, have seen lulls in enquiries at certain points in the year.
On top of managing peaks and troughs in business volume, the profession has also had to adapt to the challenges of new ways of working, including servicing clients remotely and attending hearings online.
In this environment, tasks like managing your finances and ensuring you’re getting the most out of your finances might have understandably fallen to the bottom of your to-do list.
However, with interest rates currently lower than inflation, simply keeping cash in the bank means that the value of your savings effectively falls over time.
Investing can offer ways to grow your wealth by helping to beat low interest rates, outperform inflation and build new income streams.
Whether it’s savings for a rainy day or money towards buying a new house, having the right investment strategy can help to deliver the return you need.
Here are some important questions to consider before embarking on an investment journey.
Is investing right for you?
The most important thing to consider when considering investing is whether or not your own financial position, and any other financial commitments, makes investing the right choice for you.
Investing is not a ‘quick win’, but rather a way to consistently grow the wealth you already have. It typically takes place over a long period of time – often for a period of at least five years, but typically much longer.
Before you put money aside for extended periods, to deliver the return you would be happy with it’s important that you consider whether this is possible within the context of your finances as a whole.
If there is a chance you will need to access your savings in the short-term – to cover any unexpected changes in circumstances, for example – investing may not be a sensible choice because you’ll undoubtedly encounter the normal ups and downs of the stock markets, which are best navigated over longer time horizons.
To ensure that your strategy continues to support your goals, particularly as your priorities shift, it’s important that you review your investment portfolio at regular intervals.
Why are you investing?
The first thing to do is decide what the money will be used for in the long term. You may want to save for a house deposit, your child’s university costs or your retirement, or you may just want to make your financial future more secure.
Timeframes are also important factors. For example, a lawyer looking to generate income for retirement will likely hope to build more return on their investments than someone saving up for a dream holiday.
How much risk are you willing to take?
Your attitude to risk, combined with an understanding of how you want to use your money and how much you want to generate, will help inform what you invest in.
Assets that you or a fund can invest in include stocks (also known as ‘equities’ or ‘shares’), property (typically commercial property is held within funds), corporate and government bonds, and cash. Each comes with its own level of risk – which itself can change over time – and its own degree of reward.
Even if you’re comfortable with high levels of risk, it’s a good idea to diversify your investment portfolio by spreading investments across asset classes, which offers a degree of protection against a single asset’s poor performance.
That’s why investing in a fund may be the right move for you. Investment funds usually comprise many different types of assets, spreading the overall risk, and every fund has a risk rating that you can measure your own attitude to risk against.
Are you committed to the long game?
Similar to your commitment to staying on top of any changes and developments in the legal world, it’s important to have a constant eye on the performance and suitability of your investments.
To ensure that your strategy continues to support your goals, particularly as your priorities shift, it’s important that you review your investment portfolio at regular intervals.
The expertise of a professional adviser can help ensure that your investments are delivering for you. At Wesleyan, we understand the unique financial needs of those in the legal profession and have financial consultants on hand to support you throughout your investment journey.
For more information visit: https://www.wesleyan.co.uk/secure/lawyers-1002658
Note: There is no such thing as a totally risk-free investment, and it’s important to remember that the value of your investments can go down as well as up, especially when invested in stock markets, which can be volatile. Ultimately, you may even get back less than you put in.
With LGBTQ+ History Month coming to an end, Dr Flora Renz, Lecturer in Law at Kent Law School and campaigner in the area of the legal regulation of identities, calls for us not just to look back but also forwards to the challenges to legal LGBTQ+ Rights in 2021 and throughout the pandemic. Below, she expands on her thoughts.
The last two decades have seen significant progress on LGBTQ+ rights in the UK, with the introduction of civil partnerships and, more recently, same-sex marriage and the creation of a legal framework for changing one’s gender on official documents, as well as the introduction and eventual strengthening of anti-discrimination protections. However, beyond these legal developments, LGBTQ+ people still face persistent discrimination in law, daily life and the workplace.
This seems to have been worsened over the last year due to the impact of COVID-19. The TUC and other trade unions have highlighted an increase in LGBTQ+ hate crimes and discrimination in public life and the workplace particular. At the same time, little attention has been paid to the gendered impact of the pandemic, which has a disproportionate negative effect on LGBTQ+ people.
Ongoing lockdown measures have reduced the availability of childcare, social care and medical services, which can have devastating consequences for people who are already at greater risk of discrimination and exclusion. Lockdown measures have also largely ignored the specific needs of LGBTQ+ people, particularly those from BAME backgrounds or those living with chronic illnesses and disabilities; for instance, people living with HIV have received contradictory advice about shielding throughout the pandemic.
At the same time NGOs, such as Galop, have highlighted the increase in domestic violence and abuse LGBTQ+ people have faced during lockdown, often from their own family members. This is particularly concerning given the detrimental impact of austerity, and now COVID-19, on the justice system and the courts in England and Wales.
Looking forward, the government’s Women and Equalities Committee in its recent report noted that in its priorities for post-COVID recovery, the government is so far focusing primarily on the building and construction industry, which fails to account for the gendered impact of COVID-19 related job losses that have been mostly in the service and hospitality industry.
Given the sustained and unequal impact of the pandemic on LGBTQ+ people, who are already at greater risk of discrimination, violence and social exclusion as reiterated in a recent UN report, it is vital that the government starts to take seriously the needs of LGBTQ+ people both during the pandemic and beyond it by ensuring sufficient access to vital services and freedom from discrimination.
Throughout the history of social change, we see that lawyers and legal activists have been constantly on the frontline, campaigning, clarifying and protecting the status of individuals as citizens and as people, and championing social justice in both personal and professional capacities. Much of the progress around LGBTQ+ issues would have been impossible without the involvement of lawyers who have led crucial cases from same-sex marriage to legal gender recognition and most recently the legal protection in anti-discrimination law of non-binary and gender-fluid people.
It is from the origins of the personal experiences of lawyers that we see their vital insights and passionate efforts in such times as these. My own research in this area has documented the need for clear and accessible legal instruments that support and protect LGBTQ+ people. Given the increasing pushback against vital legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010 and the still common lack of public awareness about these laws, there is a clear and pressing need for legal professionals to advocate and champion social justice issues.
How the legal sector responds to this, personally and publically, is as important now as it is ever has been, and this will be a response that lasts long beyond the 28 days of LGBTQ+ History Month.
Dr Flora Renz, Lecturer in Law, University of Kent
