​Sebastian Schoon is a partner in the Frankfurt office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He focuses his practice on banking and finance law.

Mr. Schoon advises private equity funds, banks, financial institutions and corporates on corporate finance matters, including leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, and corporate-to-corporate transactions; real estate acquisition financing, development financing and subordinated debt. He advises on domestic as well as cross-border structured finance transactions. Mr. Schoon also has vast experience on complex financial restructurings, such as loan-to-own, debt to equity swaps, trust structures, and financial reorganizations.

Chambers Europe 2023 ranks him in the category Real Estate: Finance – Germany. A client enthuses: “Sebastian is very easy to deal with, pragmatic, experienced, responsive, knowledgeable and vested with a very quick intellectual grasp and good business acumen.” (Chambers Europe 2023) Others describe him as “a very pleasant communication partner,” and “extremely reliable” (Chamber Europe 2021) as well as “really easy to work with,” (Chambers Europe 2020) and “helpful, constructive and creative” (Chambers Europe 2018). Handelsblatt / The Best Lawyers™  2022/2023 list him among the best lawyers for Banking and Finance Law in Germany. Mr. Schoon is “frequently recommended” for Bank Lending and Acquisition Finance by JUVE Handbook 2016/17.

Mr. Schoon regularly publishes on legal matters. Amongst others, he is co-author of the online legal commentary on the German insolvency code published by Verlag C.H. Beck. He is a member of Gesellschaft für Restrukturierung – TMA Deutschland e.V., the German section of the Turnaround Management Association TMA.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, he was a finance partner and co-head of the restructuring department in the Munich office of a renowned international law firm.

Mr. Schoon, in addition to his native German, is fluent in English.

Experience

Representative transactions advising financial institutions, banks and investors on the financing aspects of leveraged buyouts and recapitalization as well as corporate lending include:

• Aurelius Growth Investments on the financing of the acquisition of MLS Lanny
• Eurazeo in connection with the financing of the acquisition of MAI Group by AUCTUS
• Stone Canyon Industries in connection with the US$3.2 billion acquisition of K+S Aktiengesellschaft’s Americas salt business, including Morton Salt
• Muzinich in connection with the financing of the acquisition of the HG Medical Group by NORD Holding
• Berenberg in connection with the financing of Oakley Capital’s acquisition of Afterbuy and DreamRobot
• Berenberg in connection with the financing of Wunschgutschein GmbH, an investment of Oakley Capital
• Erdo Holding B.V., a portfolio company of DPE Deutsche Private Equity, in relation to the refinancing and the financing of the acquisition of Patina Group
• Aurelius Growth Investments on the financing of the acquisition of Sasse Elektronik
• Aurelius Growth Investments on the financing of the acquisition of Marcus Transport
• DPE Deutsche Private Equity on the financing of its acquisition of the Massenberg Group
• Jack Wolfskin on its corporate finance matters.
• Triton on its investment in Meine Radiologie Holding
• Triton on the financing of its acquisition of Lamina Technologies SA.
• Triton on the financing of its acquisition of a majority stake of Inwerk GmbH
• BlueBay on its financing of an education business owned by a private equity fund
• Deltatre on the financing of the acquisition of Massive Interactive Inc.
• 3B Scientific Group in relation to its financing arrangements with Crescent Capital and ODDO BHF
• Bosch on the finance aspects of its sale of ATW
• A portfolio company of Marlin Equity on the financing of Longview
• A portfolio company of Trilantic on the potential acquisition of Competence Call Center
• Giesecke+Devrient on the issuance of a EUR 200m loan note, their first loan issuance

Representative transactions advising on the financial restructurings and special situations include:

• KKR on the proposed acquisition of the Scholz Group*
• Bank of Ireland, Mizuho, DNB Bank and DEKA on the EUR 700 m financial restructuring of the APCOA group*
• A group of banks consisting of RBI, LBBW and BKB on the restructuring of a company in the IT sector*
• A group of banks consisting of UniCredit, LBBW and Bank of Ireland on the restructuring of a car parts supplier*

Representative transactions advising financial institutions, banks and investors on the financing of real estate acquisitions or developments include:

• Deutsche Pfandbriefbank on the financing of the acquisition of an Amazon logistics property by L’Étoile Properties and Koramco
• Deutsche Pfandbriefbank on the financing of the acquisition of a real estate portfolio as well as a development property by Ares
• Deutsche Pfandbriefbank on the financing of the acquisition of an office property by DIC Asset AG
• Cerberus on the EUR 480 m financing of their acquisition of METRO stores and the sale (and related financing) to Aroundtown Property*

*Experience prior to joining Gibson Dunn