Dr. Stefan Widder is a partner advising on all aspects of M&A and private equity transactions.

Mr. Widder is recognized as one of the leading M&A lawyers in Germany (JUVE, MergerLinks, WirtschaftsWoche: “one of the best addresses for M&A”) and is regularly highly ranked for M&A as well as private equity and/or corporate law by other renowned directories, including Handelsblatt, The Legal 500, and IFLR1000.

Mr. Widder has 20 years of experience advising strategic as well as financial investors on all aspects of German and cross-border M&A transactions, including leveraged buy-outs, auctions, proprietary transactions, carve-outs, joint ventures, minority investments, and distressed M&A.

He regularly speaks and writes on M&A and corporate law topics and has published more than 60 articles in leading publications.

Mr. Widder’s representative experience includes advising:

  • ZF Friedrichshafen on the:
    • Acquisition of WABCO
    • Sale of its global Body Control Systems business to Luxshare
  • Aliaxis on the:
    • Sale of its ceramics business to Kyocera
    • Sale of Rheinhütte Pumps to ITT
    • Sale of the SED valves business to Samson
  • Capvis on the:
    • Sale of arena, hessnatur, and Kaffee Partner in a "GP Secondary"
    • Acquisition of Amann Girrbach, a leading provider of digital dental technology, from TA Associates
    • Acquisition of BARTEC, a leading industrial safety technology provider, from Allianz Capital Partners
    • Sale of BARTEC to Charterhouse
    • Acquisition of Kaffee Partner
    • Acquisition, together with Triton, of Wittur, a leading provider of components for elevators, from Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Cerberus
  • Stirling Square Capital on the:
    • Acquisition of Cartonplast, a leader in reusable plastic layer pads, from Synergo 
    • Sale of Cartonplast to DBAG
  • Commerzbank as financial advisor to Chinese bidder Ningbo Jifeng on the public takeover of automotive supplier Grammer
  • SoftwareONE, a KKR portfolio company, on the acquisition of Comparex, a global IT solutions provider, from Raiffeisen 
  • Alpha Private Equity on the acquisition of commercial vehicle spare parts retailer EUROPART from Triton
  • The Carlyle Group on the:
    • Acquisition of wood processor Klenk Holz
    • Sale of Klenk Holz to Binderholz
    • Sale of Honsel to Ripplewood
  • Peugeot Invest on its investment in René Benko's Signa Development Selection
  • H.I.G. Capital on the:
    • Acquisition of Losberger, a leading provider of temporary housing solutions 
    • Sale of Losberger to Gilde 
  • Consortium “Albert Ballin” on the acquisition of Hapag-Lloyd from TUI

Bar Qualification

  • Rechtsanwalt (Germany)

Education

  • Second German State Exam, Higher Regional Court, Hamburg, 2002
  • Dr. jur., University of Hamburg, 2001
  • LLM, University of Stellenbosch, 1998
  • First German State Exam, University of Hamburg, 1997

Languages Spoken

  • English
  • German