Cor­po­ra­te Law

Gui­ding en­ter­pri­ses:
from A to Z and bey­ond.

Cor­po­ra­te law is a tra­di­tio­nal spe­cia­lism of LE­BUHN & PUCH­TA. The firm has very long-stan­ding ex­pe­ri­ence of ad­vi­sing busi­nesses and en­tre­pre­neurs in all bran­ches of in­dus­try th­roug­hout the en­ti­re life-cy­cle of a com­pa­ny.

Set­ting up cor­po­ra­te struc­tures, draf­ting share­hol­ders’ agree­ments, ad­vi­sing on cor­po­ra­te suc­ces­si­on and em­ploy­ment con­tracts for exe­cu­ti­ves, pre­pa­ring and con­duc­ting share­hol­ders’ mee­tings all form part of our skills.

We en­dea­vour to reach ami­ca­ble so­lu­ti­ons for our cli­ents in com­plex share­hol­der dis­pu­tes and, whe­re ne­ces­sa­ry, pur­sue the­se in­te­rests in li­ti­ga­ti­on. Our la­wy­ers have par­ti­cu­lar ex­per­ti­se in the law of clo­sed-end funds and re­gu­lar­ly re­pre­sent foun­ding share­hol­ders and ad­vi­so­ry board mem­bers. Our fo­cus ex­tends to ca­pi­tal-re­la­ted me­a­su­res, com­pa­ny trans­for­ma­ti­on as well as ad­vi­sing in cri­sis and in­sol­ven­cy si­tua­tions.

  • We have ad­vi­sed and re­pre­sen­ted an in­ves­tor in its dealings wi­th co-share­hol­ders and the len­der wi­th re­gard to a for­eign joint-ven­ture for the purcha­se of a ship port­fo­lio.
  • We have ad­vi­sed a pri­va­te equi­ty com­pa­ny in con­nec­tion wi­th the purcha­se of 13 ri­ver crui­se ves­sels and the foun­ding of a joint-ven­ture ship ma­nage­ment com­pa­ny. We ad­vi­sed bo­th in re­la­ti­on to the in­vest­ment in­to the new ven­ture and on ship­ping law mat­ters such as re-flag­ging, char­ter, sa­le and han­do­ver of the ves­sels; we car­ri­ed out the due di­li­gence wi­th spe­cial re­gard to ship­ping law aspects.
  • We have ac­ted for the branch of a fa­mi­ly in a dis­pu­te over the family’s suc­ces­si­on in a si­gni­fi­cant me­di­um-si­zed com­pa­ny in the oil sec­tor.
  • We have ac­ted for a share­hol­der in a dis­pu­te wi­th his co-share­hol­der in a ser­vices com­pa­ny, in­clu­ding nego­tia­ti­on of the sett­le­ment agree­ment.
  • We have ac­ted for the foun­der of a ship­ping group in a dis­pu­te wi­th his is­sue and the nego­tia­ti­on of the sett­le­ment in a me­di­ta­ti­on.
  • We have ad­vi­sed va­rious ma­na­ging di­rec­tors of clo­sed-end fund en­ti­ties in wi­de-ran­ging dis­pu­tes wi­th ad­vi­so­ry boards and li­mi­t­ed part­ners. We have pre­pared and con­duc­ted the share­hol­ders’ mee­tings and chal­len­ged un­lawful me­a­su­res by ap­p­ly­ing to court for in­junc­tions.
  • We have ac­ted for a cli­ent in chal­len­ging share­hol­der re­so­lu­ti­ons in a cor­po­ra­te en­ti­ty hol­ding num­e­rous in­di­vi­du­al li­mi­t­ed part­ner­ships and ha­ving mo­re than a thousand li­mi­t­ed part­ners.
  • We have ac­ted for cli­ents to res­truc­tu­re ai­ling ship­ping in­vest­ments, which in­cluded the sa­le of in­di­vi­du­al ship-hol­ding en­ti­ties, deal­ing wi­th US Chap­ter 11 pro­cee­dings af­fec­ting one of the share­hol­ders, amen­ding the fi­nan­ce do­cu­ments and ob­tai­ning for the pro­ject in­itia­tors a re­lease from per­so­nal lia­bi­li­ty for the in­vest­ments.
  • We have ac­ted for a cli­ent in the set­ting up of a dou­ble-laye­red ship­ping in­vest­ment ve­hic­le con­sis­ting of an in­vest­ment fund in the Is­le of Man and a Ger­man hol­ding com­pa­ny to bund­le for­eign in­vest­ment in Ger­man ship­ping pro­jects.
  • We have ac­ted for cli­ents in struc­tu­ring a start-up com­pa­ny from the en­ter­tain­ment sec­tor.
  • We have ad­vi­sed the ma­na­ging di­rec­tors of va­rious ship­ping fund en­ti­ties in the pe­ri­od up to the fil­ing for in­sol­ven­cy and have pre­pared and con­duc­ted the con­ten­tious share­hol­ders’ mee­tings.
  • We have ad­vi­sed a Ger­man shipow­ner in con­nec­tion wi­th its can­cel­la­ti­on of a se­ries of six ship­buil­ding con­tracts wi­th an In­di­an shi­py­ard and suc­cessful re­co­very of the lar­ge amount due un­der the re­fund gua­ran­tees. The mat­ter in­vol­ved com­plex cor­po­ra­te law aspects as the shi­py­ard had a sta­ke in the buy­ing en­ti­ties.
  • We have gi­ven in-depth ad­vice to cli­ents re­gar­ding the struc­tu­ring of ship­ping pools and the draf­ting of the pool agree­ments.
  • We have pre­pared and con­duc­ted the AGM of a lis­ted bio­tech firm.
  • We have ac­ted for a li­mi­t­ed part­ner against an is­suing house in con­nec­tion wi­th claims un­der va­rious share sa­le agree­ments in re­spect of part­ner­ship shares.
  • We have ad­vi­sed cli­ents in con­nec­tion wi­th an ami­ca­ble par­ting of the stake­hol­ders of a li­mi­t­ed part­ner­ship struc­tu­re.