Johannes Schmidt
Image of Johannes Schmidt

Johannes Schmidt

Senior Associate

Johannes advises on all aspects of corporate law with a focus on corporate M&A.

In particular, he advises tech companies, their founders and investors on growth and venture capital investments, domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, strategic commercial partnerships as well as joint ventures. His experience ranges from seed round investments in start-ups to major growth equity investments, private equity M&A transactions and multi-seller exits.

Best Lawyers® in cooperation with business daily Handelsblatt has recognized Johannes repeatedly in the “Ones to Watch” list for Germany in the areas of Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Venture Capital Law.

He started his career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company and held various operational positions at the fintech growth company Deposit Solutions (now: Raisin). Before joining A&O Shearman, he worked as lawyer at a German top-tier VC law firm.

Expertise

Industries

Experience

Representative matters

  • Kühne Holding on its investment in Flix SE together with EQT.
  • Partners Group on its investment in green flexibility.
  • TravelPerk on its acquisition of Yokoy.
  • Armira on the de-SPAC transaction of Boxine (“Tonies”) with 468 SPAC.*
  • Deutsche GigaNetz inter alia on the entry of DWS.*
  • DTCP on a joint venture transaction with Porsche Automobil Holding SE.*
  • US family offices on their shareholdings in Celonis SE, inter alia on the series D extension financing round lead by Qatar Investment Authority.*
  • Various other venture capital financing rounds, e.g.,
    - Soluterials on the seed financing round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF).*
    - DeFi Labs (“Violet”) on the seed and series A financing rounds lead by BlueYard, and FinTech Collective, Ethereal and Balderton respectively.*
    - Kopernikus Automotive on the series A and series A extension financing rounds lead by Continental.*
  • Project A on the management buy-out of kfzteile24 from EQT.*
  • Founders and investors of Stocard on the exit to Klarna.*
  • Founders of ComX on the entry of FLEX Capital.*
  • Management of adSoul on the acquisition of adSoul from Otto Group (management buy-out).*
  • Founders of AMANA on the acquisition by LucaNet, a portfolio company of HgCapital.*
  • Iberdrola on the sale of 49% in the “Windanker” offshore wind farm to Kansai.
  • BPE Private Equity inter alia on the acquisitions of farmermobil, MSM.digital, DeutschAkademie and OPEN as well as on the exit of epis Automation to Perpetua Holding.*
  • ECO Group on the participation in JM Nature (“Ben & Anna”).*
  • Keleya on its merger with Kinderheldin.*
  • Founders of m+m Gebäudetechnik on the entry of SüdBG, a subsidiary of LBBW.*

* previous firm experience

Published Work

  • Dr. Felix Steffek, LL.M. (Cambridge) and Johannes Schmidt (2010), Annotation to Federal Court of Justice (BGH) judgment of 20.7.2009 - II ZR 36/08 - Liability for an equity-substituting guarantee in the case of enforcement of another security through sale to the guaranteeing shareholder, Business Law Cases (Entscheidungen zum Wirtschaftsrecht, EWiR) 2010, pp. 81 – 82

Awards

  • Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch - Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law, 2023
  • Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch - Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Venture Capital Law, 2024
  • Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch - Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Venture Capital Law, 2025

Qualifications

Admissions

Rechtsanwalt, Germany, 2021

Academic

Second German Law Degree, Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, 2014

First German Law Degree, Bucerius Law School, 2011

LL.B., Bucerius Law School, 2010

Languages

English, German
Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.