Wessel is a senior advisor for all corporate and transactional matters. He is extremely versatile and captures the full waterfront for strategics and financial investors, including in highly regulated sectors. Wessel is known for his strategic and balanced view as well as his efficient and empathetic working style. In both, domestic and cross-border matters, his ability to understand the relevant economic drivers and to develop innovative, pragmatic solutions allows clients to achieve the best possible outcome.
Wessel is known for his responsive, hands-on attitude and determination to drive success for clients, even in the most challenging circumstances.
With experience in public and private M&A, corporate restructurings, privatisations, insurance and banking law, Wessel defines strategies that align regulatory compliance with commercial ambition, empowering clients to execute transformative transactions while maintaining operational resilience. He specialises in advising financial investors, including private equity houses, and strategics, including insurance companies, on their most important investment opportunities.
As an experienced financial institutions lawyer, Wessel has developed a close working relationship with the German financial supervisory authority (BaFin). He is the firm’s Global Co-Head M&A.
Fluent in German, English, Dutch, French, and Italian, Wessel facilitates seamless communication across markets, enhancing his ability to guide clients through high-profile, market-leading matters.
- Allianz X on the acquisition of Innovation Group, a leading global provider of claims and technology solutions to the insurance and automotive industries; as well as on the later sale.
- Allianz X on the acquisition of finanzen.de, a leading European B2B online marketplace for high-value consumer traffic in the insurance and financial services sectors.
- Cinven and Hannover Re on their: €300m acquisition of Heidelberger Leben, a provider of German retirement and life insurance products, from Lloyds Banking Group; and €220m acquisition of the Skandia life insurance business in Germany and Austria.
- Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on the €1.165bn acquisition of Hotelbeds from TUI; and Cinven on the sale of HostEurope to GoDaddy for €1.68bn.
- Cinven, the leading international private equity firm focused on building world-class global and European companies, sold Arcaplanet, a leading Italian pet care retailer, to Fressnapf and concurrently acquired a minority shareholding in the Fressnapf Group, a leading European pet supplies business.
- Cinven, and leading global investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, on an investment in the combination of group.ONE and the dogado group.
- Cinven on Cinven Funds’ agreement to acquire MBCC Admixtures, a leading global manufacturer of concrete admixtures and sustainable solutions for the construction industry operating under the ‘Master Builders’ brand, from Sika.
- Funds advised by EQT and SUSE, a global provider of open source-based solutions, on the initial public offering of SUSE on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
- EQT on the sale of Utimaco Verwaltung, a global provider of professional cybersecurity and data intelligence solutions for regulated critical infrastructures, to SGT Capital, a global alternative asset manager with offices in Germany and Singapore.Advising Goldman Sachs Inc. on the acquisition of the NN asset management activities.
- EQT on the acquisition and the sale of Schülke & Mayr, a disinfection business, from Air Liquide.
- EQT Growth, part of the purpose-driven global investment organisation, in an EQT Growth-led €235m Series E funding round in Mambu, a market-leading SaaS banking platform.
- GIC on its participation in an equity round of CHF600m (US$650m) for Climeworks and several equity rounds in N26 as well as deepL.
- IVG on the sale of its real estate business OFFICEFIRST to Blackstone for around €3.3bn.
- ATS Beteiligungsverwaltung and the other shareholders on their sale of Ganymed, a biotech company specialising in cancer treatments, for up to €1.44bn.
- Viridium Group on the acquisition of an extensive portfolio of traditional life insurance policies with approximately 720,000 insurance contracts and assets under management of approximately €21bn from Zurich Group Germany.
- Viridium Group on its acquisition of 89.90 per cent of the shares in Generali Lebensversicherung from Generali Deutschland.
- Viridium Group on the purchase of the life insurance business of Protektor.
- Zurich (i) as insolvency insurer of the Thomas Cook group; (ii) on the sale of all shares in its distribution entity Bonnfinanz to BlackFin (including the conclusion of a renewed distribution agreement); and (iii) on its comprehensive life and non-life insurance distribution agreement with Deutsche Bank group, securing Zurich’s continuous access to Deutsche Bank’s distribution capabilities for the next decade.
