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CMS, the top 10 international law firm, has recently announced its financial results for 2017.

  • Total annual revenues of EUR 1.3bn for 2017, a year-on year growth of 31%
  • 47 new partners in global promotions round spread across 10 countries
  • Ranked #1 for deal count across major European jurisdictions by Mergermarket

Cornelius Brandi, Executive Chairman of CMS, said, “2017 has seen a significant increase in revenue for the firm as we continue to expand globally into new territories and consolidate from a position of strength in our existing offices. As a global organisation with over 70 offices, we are well positioned to support our clients in their cross-jurisdictional business wherever they operate.”

Already one of the largest international law firms, CMS further extended its geographic reach in 2017 with new offices in Monaco and through an association with Saudi Arabian firm Feras Al Shawaf in Riyadh.

CMS has also continued growing in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In May last year, partner Libor Prokeš, Senior Associate Pavel Srb and Associate Ivana Lobotková have moved from Wolf Theiss to strengthen CMS Prague’s real estate practice. In June 2017, CMS opened its fully integrated Slovak office in Bratislava after more than twenty years of advising clients in Slovakia through associations with local law offices. After just a year of the office opening, the team has 13 lawyers and is still growing.

Industry recognition is strong and another indicator of CMS’s success. In addition to numerous prestigious national awards and rankings, it also received international recognition for its work. Highlights included:

  • In October, CMS won the “Innovation in legal expertise: driving value” category at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe 2017. The award recognised the work of the international CMS team, led by Pietro Graf Fringuelli (CMS Cologne), in advising the Electronic Sports League in creating a new governing body, the World eSports Association (WESA).
  • CMS won “European Private Equity Legal Adviser of the Year 2017” while CMS France won “France M&A Legal Adviser of the Year 2017” at the Mergermarket European M&A Awards. 
  • 2017 was another successful year for the Corporate/M&A Group as CMS was ranked #1 (by deal count) in several jurisdictions in 2017 European league table rankings in Germany, CEE, Poland and the DACH region by Mergermarket; in CEE by Bloomberg and in Europe, Germany and Switzerland by Thomson Reuters.

A selection of international client mandates included:

  • Advising Mid Europa Partners, the leading private equity investor in CEE, on the sale of AeskuLab and Alpha Medical businesses in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to Unilabs
  • Advising Clarion Capital Partners on its EUR 320m divestment of Moravia IT, a global translation and localisation business headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic to RWS Holdings plc
  • Advising Wood & Co on the acquisition of Aupark Office Tower in Bratislava, the largest office transaction in Slovakia for more than 7 years
  • Advising HP Inc. on its USD 1.05bn acquisition of Samsung’s printer division
  • Representing Enagas on its acquisition of Endesa’s stake in GNL Quintero
  • Acting as legal advisor to BT Group on its multi-year content cross-supply agreement
  • Advising Sunrise, the number two Swiss telecoms operator, on the sale of Swiss Towers for CHF 500m
  • Representing Deutsche Bank and other creditors, including a consortium of US-based emerging markets hedge funds on the USD 1.1bn restructuring of the bank debt of DTEK
  • Acting as legal advisor to Allianz on an insurance dispute arising from its coverage of EuroChem, a major chemicals producer and trader
  • Advising SYNLAB on its acqusition of ALcontrol
  • Representing Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) and its fund manager Universal on the structuring of a series of open-and closed-end real estate funds. The focus was on investments in the Nordic countries as well as in Asia and Europe generally.

Cornelius Brandi commented, “Against a backdrop of geo-political uncertainty, markets have been volatile as investors continue searching for above average returns. However, with transactional data indicating that activity levels in 2018 have continued where 2017 left off, we expect another buoyant year for our clients.”

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Contact:

Erik Werkman, Head of BD, Prague and Bratislava

+420 296 798 701

erik.werkman@cms-cmno.com

 

Notes to editors:

 

About CMS

Founded in 1999, CMS is a full-service top 10 international law firm, based on the number of lawyers (Am Law 2016 Global 100). With more than 70 offices in over 40 countries across the world and employing more than 4,500 lawyers, CMS has longstanding expertise both in advising in its local jurisdictions and across borders. From major multinationals and mid-caps to enterprising start-ups, CMS provides the technical rigour, strategic excellence and long-term partnership to keep each client ahead whatever its chosen markets. Revenues totalled EUR 1,05bn in 2016.

CMS provides a wide range of expertise across 19 expert practice and sector areas, including Corporate/M&A, Energy, Funds, Lifesciences, TMC, Tax, Banking and Finance, Commercial, Competition & EU, Dispute Resolution, Employment & Pensions, Intellectual Property and Real Estate & Construction.

For more information, please visit cms.law

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