White & Case LLP - Lawyers - Hermann Schmitt

Practice Experience

Based in Moscow since 1995, Hermann has represented major foreign investors into Russia and Russian banks, telecommunications operators and industrial manufacturers in M&A and real estate deals. He is listed as one of the top corporate/commercial lawyers in Russia by Chambers Global and IFLR1000.

Hermann's recent experience includes:

Advising High River Gold Mines (HRG), a Canadian gold company, on the restructuring of its Russian operations, including the sale of a stake in HRG to Severstal Resources, the mining division of Severstal, which resulted in Severstal Resources increasing its stake in HRG to 50.1 percent
Advising a leading international E&P company on an asset swap with Gazprom in respect to the Yuzhno-Russkoye natural gas field in Western Siberia;
Representing Societe Generale in a record-setting $2.3 billion, multi-stage acquisition of Rosbank, Russia's top private consumer bank, from the Interros Group;
Advising Bank of Cyprus on the $576 million acquisition of an 80 percent stake in Uniastrum Bank, a commercial Russian bank with the 9th largest network in the country;
Advising Bombardier Transportation, a leader in the global rail sector, on establishing two joint ventures with Transmashholding, Russia's largest manufacturer of rolling stock and Russian Railways' main supplier;
Advising Goldman Sachs on the acquisition of Pokrovsky Hills, an elite townhouse neighborhood in northwest Moscow, from AIG and Deutsche Bank;
Advising Knauf Gips KG (KNAUF), on its acquisition from Ilim Pulp of 56 percent of the stock in St. Petersburg Cardboard and Printing Plant (KPK), the largest Russian manufacturer of coated and uncoated cardboard and packaging materials;
Advising Commerzbank on the acquisition of 15.3% of shares in Promsvyazbank;
Acting as a special counsel to RUSAL in their multi-billion dollar merger with SUAL Group and certain alumina and aluminium assets of Glencore International;
Representing Aegis Media plc in the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Komandarm, a leading Russian media company;
Advising RUSAL on the acquisition of bauxite sites in Guinea in 2002, 2004 and 2006;
Representing Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Raiffeisenbank Austria, Banque Natexis and others in setting up fully-licensed banking operations in Russia; and
Representing Siemens in the acquisition and development of a prime property for its Moscow headquarters; and
Representing WestGkA (West LB Group) in the acquisition and development and disposal to a Swiss investment fund of the "Berlin House" building next to the Bolshoi Theatre as well as its sale (in spring 2004) to a Swiss fund.

Hermann is executive partner of the Moscow office.

Bars and Courts
Landgericht, Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main

Education
JD, University of Giessen, 1987
Universities of Marburg and Giessen, 1985

Professional Associations and Memberships
International Bar Association
Deutscher Anwaltsverein
Deutsch-Russisches Forum

Publications
"Joint Ventures in Europe", 3rd edition, author of the Russia chapter, Tottel Publishing, 2008
"The Russian M&A market: record-setting activity and continued growth", ALM Guide to Global Mergers & Acquisitions, January 2006
"Handbuch Unternehmenskauf" (Acquisition of Companies), published by Johannes Semler and Rüdiger Volhard, author of the Russia chapter, C.H. Beck Publishing House, 2002
"Stärkung der Rechte von Aktionären - Reform des russischen Aktiengesetzes" (Reinforcing the Rights of the Shareholders - Reform of the Russian Joint Stock Company Act), RIW 10-2002

Languages
German
English
Russian

Citizenship
Germany