White & Case LLP - Lawyers - Sascha H. Schmidt

Practice Experience

Sascha Schmidt's principal area of practice is bank finance, in particular in connection with national and international acquisitions and projects.

He advises both German and international lenders, investors and companies in their national and international finance transactions and related corporate issues.
Sascha is currently on secondment to the London office.

Representative transcations include:

Acting for European private equity investor Halder and related funds, in connection with the €56 million senior financing and €19 million mezzanine financing of its acquisition of VAG-Armaturen GmbH, an international valve supplier, from Equita, a German private equity fund. The financing was arranged by Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and Dutch fund AlpInvest acting as co-investor;
Acting for a major German retail chain in connection with a refinancing, comprised of an approx. €500 million syndicated loan arranged by three German banks;
Acting for GE Commercial Finance SAS which acted as global coordinator as well as co-underwriter and co-bookrunner with Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and WestLB AG in connection with the approximately US$629 million financing for the acquisition of Breeze Industrial Products Corporation, a clamps producer and distributor, by the NORMA Group;
Acting for M Cap Finance Deutsche Mezzanine in connection with the provision of a mezzanine facility to Avida MidCap Fund GmbH & Co. KG;
Acting for Morgan Stanley and Société Générale in connection with the financing for the refinancing of the SAF Group and the add-on acquisition of the Holland Group by Pamplona Capital Partners;
Acting as German counsel for Belgian Hamon & Cie (International), SA in relation to the refinancing by way of a €95 million senior facility arranged by Bear Stearns Bank plc and Fortis Bank NV and a €25 million mezzanine facility arranged by Bear Stearns plc;
Acting for WestLB AG in connection with the granting of a US$ 106 million add-on term loan acquisition facility to private equity investor Industry Kapital and Dywidag Systems International GmbH for the acquisition of all the authorised and issued share capital and/or business and assets of Fasloc Holdings, Inc. and Fasloc Inc. from Sentinel Capital Partners and other individual stockholders and optionholders;
Acting for Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and UBS Limited as arrangers and original lenders, in providing €500 million of acquisition financing to Advent International as investor in order to finance the purchase of the assets relating to the oxo and derivatives business of Celanese located in Oberhausen, Germany, Bay City, USA and Bishop, USA from Celanese including all shares of European Oxo Chemicals GmbH (a joint-venture between Celanese and Degussa);
Acting for Deutsche Bank, London Branch, Mizuho Corporate Bank and The Royal Bank of Scotland, Frankfurt Branch as mandated lead arrangers in the €884 million refinancing of the Carl Zeiss Vision group, a leader in ophthalmic products;
Acting for The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (Frankfurt branch) and Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited as arrangers in connection with the granting of a €1.27 billion term, revolving, second lien and mezzanine facility to equity investor EQT for the acquisition of all the authorized and issued share capital and /or business assets of Kabel Baden-Württemberg GmbH & Co KG and its affiliates;
Acting for Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (Frankfurt branch) as mandated lead arrangers in connection with the granting of a €1.170 billion term, revolving and second lien facility to equity investor EQT IV Limited for the acquisition of all the authorized and issued share capital and/or business and assets of MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH and certain distributions and marketing units of DaimlerCrysler AG;
Acting for Treofan Group, a leading BOPP film manufacturer, on a €286 million refinancing of substantially all of its senior bank and mezzanine debt. The refinancing comprised the issuance of €170 million of second lien notes, an approximately €56 million issuance of preferred stock and a new €60 million bank credit facility;
Acting as German local counsel for Sinclair SAS (SPV of Industri Kapital) on a €212 million financing for the acquisition of the Consolis Group, a leading manufacturer of concrete precast elements in Europe;
Acting as German counsel for Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan as Mandated Lead Arrangers and Underwriters of the €3.8 billion senior financing provided to the Jefferson Smurfit Group, an Irish-based manufacturer of paper-based packaging products, in connection with its merger with Kappa Packaging, a Netherlands based manufacturer of packaging products; and
Acting for Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft as Arranger in connection with the granting of a €104 million term and revolving facility to equity investor Nordwind Capital for the acquisition of SHW Automotive GmbH, a German supplier of high performance hydraulic pumps mainly for car engines, high end ventilated brake discs and powder metallurgy products.

Bars and Courts
Rechtsanwalt, Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, 2005

Education
Second State Exam, Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf, 2005
First State Exam, University of Heidelberg, 1999
Erasmus Scholar, University of Barcelona, Spain, 1995

Publications
"Limitation of claims against the insolvency administrator to pay out the proceeds of securities sales," ZinsO, Pages 422-425, 2005

Languages
English
French
German
Spanish

Citizenship
Germany