Dirk Oberbracht is a partner in the Frankfurt office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is a member of the firm’s Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions Groups and Partner-in-Charge of the Frankfurt office.

Mr. Oberbracht is a leading Private Equity and M&A lawyer. He advises private equity investors, corporate clients, families and management teams. He has extensive expertise in cross-border and domestic deals, including carve-outs, joint ventures, minority investments, corporate restructurings and management equity programs.

Chambers and Partners rank Mr. Oberbracht in Band 2 for Private Equity (Chambers Europe 2023) and rank him in Germany for Corporate/M&A: High-end Capability (Chambers Global 2023). Clients highlight that he “is fantastic in leading the discussions and structuring transactions which are super complex;” “[…] thinks ahead of the commercial issues and not just the legal implications, gives good impulses and goes beyond the purely legal dimension;” and that he “is extremely strategic, thorough and super experienced.” (Chambers Global 2023) One client said: “Dirk Oberbracht was wonderful throughout the transaction,” explaining: “He was flexible in terms of availability and legal expertise and really went the extra mile to facilitate a difficult deal.” (Chambers Global 2022). Other clients described him as “very strategic, smart and great in getting complex deals done” (Chambers Europe 2019).  Mr. Oberbracht is a member of The Legal 500 Hall of Fame as a recognition for his continued excellence and praise from clients in Private Equity over several years and he was named as Lawyer of the Year 2022 for Private Equity by Handelsblatt / The Best Lawyers™. In 2022, he was recognized by WirtschaftsWoche as one of the Top Lawyers in M&A. He is also recommended by The Legal 500, Best Lawyers™ in Germany, Who’s Who Legal – Germany, IFLR1000 and Kanzleimonitor 2022/2023.  JUVE 2022/2023 also lists him as “frequently recommended” for PE and M&A.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Dirk Oberbracht was a corporate partner in the Frankfurt office of a renowned US law firm and headed such office for several years.

Mr. Oberbracht is fluent in German and English.

Experience

Representative transactions* include advising:

• Atlas Copco in connection with the €1.1B tender offer for ISRA VISION AG.
• Atlas Copco on the €486M acquisition of Oerlikon Leybold, the vacuum segment of the Swiss Oerlikon group.
• CANAL+ on the €1 billion acquisition of M7 Group, a European pay-TV Operator, from Astorg, a private equity firm.
• Celanese on the acquisition of Nouryon’s Elotex® brand redispersible polymer powders business.
• Clariant and Ashland on the €257M sale of ASK Chemicals, a leading manufacturer of foundry chemicals with facilities in 25 countries, to Rhône Capital.
• Dubai International Capital on the US$1.7B sale of Mauser, a leading industrial packaging company, to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
• Gilead Sciences, Inc. on its acquisition of MYR GmbH (approx. €1.15B plus up to €300M milestone payment, named Deal of the Month by JUVE, February 2021).
• Heska Corporation, manufacturer and supplier of diagnostic and specialty solutions for veterinary practitioners, in its acquisition by Mars, Inc. for $1.5B.
• Heska Corporation on the acquisition of scil animal care GmbH, a veterinary point of care laboratory and imaging diagnostics leader, from Covetrus, Inc.
• Heska Corporation on the acquisition of VetZ GmbH, a leading provider of veterinary practice management software in Europe.
• HJM Investment GmbH & Co. KG on the sale of a stake in RENOLIT SE and the acquisition of RKW SE.
• Muehlhan AG on the sale of Gerüstbau Muehlhan GmbH to Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services GmbH.
• Nordic Capital on the intended acquisition of a global hydraulic business (above €500M).
• One Equity Partners on the acquisition of Alltub Group, a market leader in aluminum and Laminate specialty packaging for the cosmetics industry and other markets.
• One Equity Partners on the acquisition of transformer manufacturer SGB-SMIT from private equity investor BC Partners.
• One Equity Partners on the acquisition of Mauser, an international leading industrial manufacturing company, and the €850M sale of Mauser to Dubai International Capital.
• One Equity Partners on the acquisition of Vacuumschmelze, a manufacturer of advanced magnetic materials, from The Morgan Crucible Company and the US$1B sale of Vacuumschmelze to OM Group.
• Platinum Equity Advisors on its acquisition of Solenis from BASF SE and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
• Stone Canyon Industries and its subsidiary BWAY on the US$2.3B acquisition of Mauser Group, a leading industrial packaging company, from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
• Stone Canyon Industries in connection with the US$3.2B acquisition of K+S Aktiengesellschaft’s Americas salt business, including Morton Salt.
• Triton on its investment in Meine Radiologie Holding and on the sale of Meine Radiologie Holding to EQT Infrastruture.
• Triton on its acquisition of Lamina Technologies SA.
• Xella International S.A., a Holding company of funds advised by Goldman Sachs and PAI Partners, on the sale of Xella to Lone Star.
  
  *Includes experience prior to joining Gibson Dunn