White & Case LLP - Lawyers - Steffen Kaufmann

Practice Experience

Steffen heads our Moscow office's real estate practice. He advises on the full range of real estate issues, including acquisitions and disposals, green and brown-field developments, construction matters as well as financing transactions in the real estate sector. Steffen also has significant experience advising clients on corporate/M&A transactions as well as joint ventures and restructurings in Russia and the CIS. Steffen represents real estate developers and private equity firms as well as participants in the natural resources, manufacturing and finance.

Steffen's recent experience includes:

Real Estate

Representing Nord Stream AG on the proposed construction of the Baltic Sea gas pipeline, which runs from Russia to Germany through the economic zones of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany;
Representing AFI Development, one of the leading real estate development companies in Russia, on various investments in Russia, including its IPO listing on the London Stmikock Exchange and on property developments across Russia;
Advising Goldman Sachs on the acquisition of Pokrovsky Hills, an elite townhouse development in northwest Moscow, from AIG and Deutsche Bank;
Advising the Metro Group on the acquisition of land plots and related issues in connection with the establishment of wholesale and retail shopping centers in regions throughout Russia; and
Advising foreign and Russian real estate developers on the acquisition and development of commercial real estate property in various Russian cities.

Corporate/M&A

Member of the team advising Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, on a potential joint acquisition, together with Magna International, of a 55% interest in Adam Opel GmbH and its subsidiaries in a number of European countries including Russia, from the US automobile producer General Motors Company;
Advising Bombardier Transportation, a leader in the global rail sector, on various projects in Russia, including a joint venture with a leading Russian counterpart and acquisitions in the manufacturing industry;
Advising Aurora Russia, a private equity fund, on its investments in various Russian businesses, including OSG (Russia's leading records management company), Superstroy (a major DIY store chain in central Russia), UNIStream (a global express money transfer system aimed at individuals), and Flexinvest Bank;
Advising RUSAL in their multi-billion dollar merger with SUAL Group and certain alumina and aluminum assets of Glencore International where the new company has become the world's largest aluminum producer;
Advising Linde Group on the acquisition of several industrial gas plants and its business operations in across Russia; and
Advising BASF on its acquisitions of Engelhard Corporation and of Degussa’s construction chemicals business, as well as on the construction of a paint production plant.

Bars and Courts
Solicitor of England and Wales
Rechtsanwalt, Germany

Education
Freie Universität Berlin, 1997
LLM, University of Cape Town, 1999
BPP Law School, London, 2009

Professional Associations and Memberships
Urban Land Institute
Legal Committee of the German Business Association in Russia
German-South African Lawyers Association

Languages
English
German
Russian

Citizenship
Germany