We were joined by Bettina Haedrich of QAIGEN who highlighted the challenges of outbound M&A outside of the Germany market and the best strategies for integration with acquisitions. 

Shearman & Sterling Partner, Alfred Kossmann, discussed the challenges of inbound M&A into Germany and the succession issues that are facing Mittlestand companies. 

Digitalisation shaping the German market was the main focal point of our talk with Henrik Hahn, Chief Digital Officer at Evonik, with the opportunities that are presented in the chemicals industry and the impact of innovation in the growing trend of digitisation in the market. 

The role of activist shareholders in Germany came up in our conversation with Michael Brellochs of Noerr and how the awareness of shareholder activism is having an effect on the market. 

We were delighted to be joined by Siobhan Sweeney-Cordova of the American Industrial Acquisition Corporation who shared her views on what is driving the deal flow in the German market and how she goes about identifying deal opportunities. 

We asked Karl Ostler, CEO at the Koller Group about the rationale of bringing in a Chinese investor and the type of venture that they eventually decided upon.

We met up with the Head of M&A at Bayer AG, Frank Rittgen, to discuss how to differentiate in an auction scenario.

Over coffee we discussed the expectations for future Chinese investments in Germany and the opportunities that this may produce with Inna Gehrt, Partner and Head of DACH at Mandarin Capital Partners.