Johannes Frey

Dr. Frey’s tax practice focuses on complex tax controversy matters, as well as international tax planning and cross-border mergers.

He has co-authored numerous articles on a wide range of international topics that have been published in leading tax journals, including the Tax Management International Journal, Tax Notes and Tax Notes International. He also served as adjunct professor for international taxation at the University of Lausanne.

Dr. Frey has been repeatedly selected for inclusion as a leading lawyer in Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, World Tax, Who’s Who Legal, Expert Guides’ Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers, Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers and JUVE Wirtschaftskanzleien. He also was previously named by Wirtschaftswoche (a leading German journal) as one of the top 25 corporate tax lawyers in Germany.

Selective representations include:

• many multinational companies in joint audits, appeals, litigation and other tax proceedings;
• alstria office REIT-AG on:
  • all tax aspects in connection with the public takeover by Brookfield against a cash consideration of €3.5 billion; and
  • the tax aspects of its proposed, unsolicited US$890 million acquisition of DO Deutsche Office AG. Both companies are based in Germany;
• Celonis, a German decacorn and global leader in execution management, currently valued at US$13 billion, in its US$400 million Series D extension led by the Qatar Investment Authority, including both new and existing investors;
• Energy Infrastructure Partners on the tax aspects of its acquisition of a 49% stake in Iberdrola’s €1.425 billion Wikinger offshore wind farm;
• Netflix, Inc. on the tax structuring and aspects of its acquisition of Scanline VFX;
• BlackRock in a cross-border reorganization;
• Armira and Boxine with the tax aspects of Boxine’s €1 billion cross-border business combination with 468 SPAC I SE, one of the first de-SPAC transactions in the market involving a German-listed blanc cheque company;
• SIGNA Sports United GmbH with the tax aspects of its US$3.3 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange as a result of the de-SPAC merger with Yucaipa Acquisition Corporation. The merger also included the acquisition of WiggleCRC Group;
• MorphoSys AG with the tax aspects of its US$1.7 billion acquisition of Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its related US$2 billion financing from Royalty Pharma plc.;
• the shareholders of Canyon Bicycles, Roman Arnold and TSG Consumer Partners in the sale of a majority stake in Canyon Bicycles to Groupe Bruxelles Lambert;
• The SCP Group in its:
  • €1.2 billion acquisition of the Real Group from METRO AG; and
  • sale of the digital business of Real, including the online marketplace operated under real. de, to Schwarz Gruppe;
• Coty Inc. in its strategic partnership with KKR & Co. Inc. including the carveout sale of 60% of its professional beauty and retail hair businesses to KKR with an enterprise value of US$4.3 billion;
• The Coca-Cola Company with the tax aspects of the combination of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc., Coca-Cola Iberian Partners SA and Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG to form a new company called Coca-Cola European Partners Plc;
• J.P. Morgan with tax aspects in connection with the acquisition of GAGFAH S.A. by Deutsche Annington Immobilien SE. The combination of the two companies created the second-largest listed real estate company in continental Europe, with a portfolio of more than 350,000 residential units valued at around €21 billion; and
• Merck KGaA with the tax aspects of its US$17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a chemical company for the life science industry.