Sebastian Seidler advises companies and private individuals in all areas of commercial law and international business transactions. Advice in English, including the review, drafting and negotiation of English contracts, is just as much a matter of course as the assumption of representation in litigation throughout Germany.

Sebastian Seidler’s corporate law advisory services include, in addition to the support of company formations and transformations, above all corporate transactions of all kinds, i.e. the support of purchase and sale processes and, in particular, the preparation and support of corporate succession. As a certified business succession advisor (ZentUma e.V.), Sebastian Seidler also has many years of practical experience in this area. In the case of family-internal company successions, solutions under company law (keyword family pool or family holding) are often used.

Another focus of Sebastian Seidler’s practice is real estate law. In addition to providing comprehensive legal support for real estate transactions of all types and sizes, this also includes (commercial) tenancy law, in particular in the form of reviewing or drafting legally secure tenancy agreements and – if necessary, also litigating – enforcing the resulting claims for our clients.

Structuring of a medium-sized group of companies for the purpose of corporate succession

Advising a medium-sized family business on the restructuring of the group of companies for the purpose of initiating succession within the family, setting up new holding companies for domestic and foreign shareholdings, bringing the shareholders’ previous shareholdings under the new holding structure, taking into account the complex tax law issues in close coordination with the ongoing tax advice, coordinating the obtaining of specific expertise by one of Germany’s leading interdisciplinary tax firms. Total transaction volume approx. € 20 million.

Intra-family business succession

Conception and preparation of all contractual documents for the family-internal company succession of a medium-sized family business with a transaction volume of approx. 6 million € (consideration of various participations in non-European countries, consideration of inheritance law, family law and tax law circumstances, structuring of the transaction taking into account the greatest possible preservation of liquidity, parallel development of a suitable testamentary arrangement on the shareholder side).

Implementation of the contractual as well as testamentary regulation of succession

Advising the majority shareholder of a large medium-sized group of companies on the conception and implementation of contractual and testamentary succession arrangements with a total volume of approx. € 40 million (taking into account the patchwork family structure, compensation for a beneficiary of a compulsory portion by transferring real estate and cash assets in exchange for a waiver of the compulsory portion, alignment of the corporate law circumstances with the planned succession solution, consideration of cross-border issues, etc.).

Advising a Swiss logistics group

Advising a Swiss logistics group in connection with the acquisition of a German logistics company with subsidiaries in Germany and Lithuania by way of a share deal, conducting the legal due diligence, preparing and negotiating the contractual documents including the downstream merger of the German targets, coordinating the legal due diligence with regard to the Lithuanian companies by an external law firm on site, coordinating and accompanying the notarisation in Basel.

Advice and representation of heirs

Advice and representation of the heirs of a surprisingly deceased sole proprietor in connection with the accrual of the inheritance, possibilities of limiting liability in the future ongoing business by means of transformation (spin-off of the business from the undivided community of heirs to be absorbed by a simultaneously newly founded unitary GmbH & Co. KG, minimisation of tax effects and sale of a majority of the business while ensuring universal succession, dissolution of the community of heirs).

Accompaniment of the market entry

Accompaniment of a Swiss trading group in the establishment of a German subsidiary, conception of the contractual basis for online trading (purchasing, sales), ongoing advice and representation of the German subsidiary with regard to copyright law, competition law, trademark law, etc., advice in connection with market entry in other EU states, coordination of external law firms and service providers

Advising on a dept-to-equity swap and cash capital increase

Advising the Swiss shareholder of a trinational logistics service company in the context of a capital increase through conversion of shareholder loans into equity and simultaneous admission of a further strategic partner in return for a cash capital increase with premium

Advising an Italian logistics company

Advising a family-run Italian logistics company on the sale of a large logistics property in southern Germany to a fund, reviewing the contract and conducting negotiations with the purchaser, assisting with the notarisation and execution of the contract, total transaction volume approx. €25 million.

Advising a large real estate company on commercial tenancy law

Comprehensive advice to a large real estate investor on the re-letting of former industrial space, drafting of lease agreements, enforcement of claims arising from old agreements, including representation in court.

Ongoing advice and representation of several large, medium-sized companies in connection with international supply agreements, research and development agreements, cooperation agreements, financing agreements (esp. guarantee credit business, Hermes guarantees for export business).