Covington Highly Commended in the FT Innovative Lawyers Report Europe 2024

Covington Highly Commended in the FT Innovative Lawyers Report Europe 2024

September 23, 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.