Christoph Vonlanthen

Practice Areas

Mergers & Acquisitions; Corporate & Commercial; Restructuring and Insolvency; Life Sciences; Capital Markets; Banking & Finance; ESG

Career

Partner at Schellenberg Wittmer (2019); Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in London and New York (2006-2019); Associate in a Swiss business law firm (2003-2005)

Professional Memberships

Authorized representative at SIX Swiss Exchange

Experience

Christoph advises clients on public and private M&A transactions across multiple industries, including tech, pharma, healthcare, financial institutions, infrastructure, retail, and transportation. Christoph regularly works with private equity funds, fundless sponsors and family offices on leveraged and management buyouts. Representative assignments include:

- The carve-out acquisition of retail industry leader Conforama and its subsequent two-step divestiture to XXXLutz with Swiss merger control clearance

- The cross-border sale of sustainability consultancy leader Quantis International SA to The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.

- The leveraged and management buy-out of leading brokerage Credaris AG from Comparis and multiple subsequent add-on acquisitions

- Credit Suisse on its exit from SSA wealth management markets to Barclays

- A shipping company in its spin-merge transaction to create one of the largest publicly traded tanker companies worldwide

- A publicly traded real estate company in its £1.5 billion all-share merger

- A pharma company in its $3.5 billion private acquisition of a generic drug manufacturer

Christoph regularly advises issuers and investors in venture capital and growth equity financings. Representative assignments include:

- Swisscanto Private Equity on its investment as lead investor in the Series B financing of Zurich-based Distran

- Blue Pool Capital on its investment as lead investor in the Series F financing of Zurich- and Berlin-based GetYourGuide

- Credit Suisse on its strategic partnership with digital asset infrastructure leader Taurus and investment as lead investor in Taurus's series B financing round

- OTB Ventures on its investment as lead investor in the Series A financing of ClearSpace

- RTX Ventures on its strategic minority investment in H55 SA

Christoph advises clients on their strategically significant capital markets and corporate matters, including IPO, follow-on equity offerings, investment grade debt offerings and rights offerings. Among other assignments, Christoph has advised:

- REYL on Varia Europe Properties' at-the-market rights offering of 2,166,161 shares

- SIX-listed OC Oerlikon in its offerings of CHF 340 million investment grade dual-tranche senior unsecured bonds and CHF 575 million investment grade three series of unsecured bonds

- One of the largest publicly traded European investment holding companies on its global IPO and subsequent bond offering

- An oil and gas group in its more than $3 billion high grade debt offerings

- A global full-service bank in its $15 billion discounted rights offering

Christoph's experience in leveraged finance and restructurings includes multiple assignments in high-yield bond offerings, bridge loans, and liability management. Experience highlights include advising the underwriters in a £500 million bridge-to-bond financing for the acquisition of a specialty insurance group; the underwriters to a major car manufacturer in its inaugural £1 billion equivalent offering of high-yield bonds and multiple follow-on offerings; and a global telecommunication company in its more than $2 billion comprehensive liability management transactions.

Languages Spoken

Languages: English, French, German