About

Klaus Cannivé’s inclusion is ‘highly deserved’ say peers, based not only on achievements in his current role which he only took up in January 2014, but on his three years at Commerzbank. Highlights that created a stir in the market were his legal advice on several capital measures for the bank, particularly the hybrid-to-equity swap 2011 designed to strengthen the bank’s core capital quote, ‘an extremely complex transaction that in a difficult market set the foundation for several of the bank’s following capital measures’. Remarkably, the entire project was handled without any external legal support but from a small, internal legal team that negotiated and structured all details, ‘a rarity even for much less complex capital market transactions’. Cannivé has also handled the sale of the bank’s depositary banking business in 2013 with a funds volume of €93bn. Cross-border challenges are not a problem, including assuming non-legal related responsibilities as executive board member of Dresdner Bank’s Latin America branch (Dresdner Lateinamerika) in addition to his ongoing tasks at Commerzbank (which acquired Dresdner in 2009). In his current position at GfK he has already initiated changes such as the increased interaction between jurisdictions, as well as the increased centralisation and the pro-active management of external counsel. Cannivé enjoys ‘instigating processes and negotiating commercial aspects’ with the goal ‘to close the deal’. Law firms should show ‘more pragmatism, offer less theoretical Erörterungen’ and show ‘more courage to give clear recommendations’.