London/ Frankfurt/ Munich — Stifel Nico­laus Europe Limi­ted is acqui­ring Main­First Bank AG, an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean invest­ment bank, as well as Main­First Schweiz AG and Main­First Secu­ri­ties US Inc. Gleiss Lutz provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Stifel Europe in connec­tion with the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first quar­ter of 2019, subject to regu­la­tory approvals.

Stifel Europe is a subsi­diary of New York Stock Exch­ange-listed Stifel Finan­cial Corp, a finan­cial services holding company head­quar­te­red in St. Louis, Missouri, which opera­tes its
Conducts banking, secu­ri­ties and finan­cial services opera­ti­ons through seve­ral wholly owned subsi­dia­ries. The Euro­pean subsi­diary Stifel Europe, based in London, provi­des capi­tal struc­ture advice prima­rily to mid-market clients and also advi­ses on issues such as corpo­rate broking, equity capi­tal markets, debt capi­tal markets and mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons. Stifel streng­thens its posi­tion in Europe with the tran­sac­tion, espe­ci­ally since Main­First has a full German banking license, which provi­des unrest­ric­ted access to the Euro­pean market even after the “Brexit”
guaranteed.

Main­First is an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean finan­cial services provi­der with offices in Frank­furt, London, Luxem­bourg, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris and Zurich and specia­li­zes in equity brokerage, equity capi­tal markets and asset manage­ment. Custo­mer base are insti­tu­ti­ons and compa­nies in key Euro­pean markets.

Gleiss Lutz hand­led the tran­sac­tion toge­ther with teams from the English law firm Macfar­la­nes, the Swiss law firm Bär & Karrer, the French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel and the Italian law firm
Chio­menti accompanied.

The follo­wing Gleiss Lutz team provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Stifel on German law:
Dr. Jan Bals­sen, Photo (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner), Dr. Olaf Hohle­fel­der (both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr. Stefan Mayer (Part­ner), Dr. Ocka Stumm, (both Tax), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian von Rom (Part­ner), Dr. Timo Bühler, Eva Legler (all Banking Regu­la­tory), Dr. Stephan Aubel (Part­ner, Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets), Jan-Rasmus Roßkamp (Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets), Dr. Walter Andert (Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets, all Frank­furt), Dr. Thomas Winzer (Part­ner), Henrike Korthoff, Lea Kuhr (all Labor Law), Dr. Eva Reudel­hu­ber (Part­ner), Anasta­sia Dress­ler (both Finance,), Dr. Dirk Scherp (Of Coun­sel, Corporate/ Compli­ance), Marina Stoklasa (Corporate/Compliance, all Frank­furt), Dr. Alex­an­der Molle (Coun­sel), Dr. Hannah Bug (both IP/IT), Dr. Chris­tian Hammann (Coun­sel), Simon Wegmann (both Data Protec­tion Law,
all Berlin), Dr. Phil­ipp Naab (Coun­sel), Oksana Weber-Kim (both Real Estate, Frank­furt), Dr. Marc Ruttl­off (Coun­sel, Stutt­gart), Dr. André Lippert (Berlin, both Public Law).