Mentoring Pool

We advise companies on a broad range of both equity and debt capital market transactions.

In view of an IPO, we offer the following in particular:

• Advice on Swiss law and tax matters around going and being public
• Assessment of IPO legal readiness, identification of gaps, and recommendations on how to best implement the necessary changes to corporate structure and governance
• Identification of liability risks (incl. personal exposures) and recommendations for mitigation measures
• Draft, review, and/or negotiation of all documents required for the IPO (e.g. prospectus, legal opinions, underwriting agreement, capital increase documents, internal regulations, marketing materials, press releases)
• Training sessions for management and board members on leading a listed company

All

Advestra is a corporate law firm based in Zurich advising clients on:

• Capital markets
• Corporate | M&A
• Finance
• Financial services
• Tax

The firm’s partners have years of experience as legal advisors in IPOs or listings on SIX Swiss Exchange, the placement and listing of bonds and other fixed income instruments as well as other financing options.

Companies of all sizes and industries seek our legal and regulatory advice and value our judgment and expertise. If required, we team up with other firms leading in their respective area of expertise to deliver comprehensive services to our clients.

• Sandro Fehlmann, Partner
  sandro.fehlmann@advestra.ch, +41 58 510 92 89
• Annette Weber, Partner
  annette.weber@advestra.ch, +41 58 510 92 29

ALANTRA provides comprehensive support and project management from early-stage preparation to completion, adding significant value by providing independent advice and creating transparency along the IPO process.

• Assessment of IPO feasibility, optimal timing and roadmap to IPO
• Refinement of equity story and positioning, incl. relevant KPIs and data
• Support in developing / review of business plan and preparation of company valuation based on business plan and capital market sentiment
• Definition of IPO framework (incl. offering structure) and capital structure based on business plan / funding requirements
• Selection of and negotiation with other service providers, incl. banks

Following an IPO, ALANTRA remains a trusted advisor for M&A as well as financings.

For further information please refer to
https://www.alantra.com/what-we-do/investment-banking/

All

ALANTRA is a leading and independent international corporate finance advisor for the mid-market with an established track record of 1,500+ corporate finance transactions since 2013.

With over 20 offices worldwide, ALANTRA offers a global understanding of industry sectors combined with strong local relationships with companies, investors, entrepreneurs, and financing institutions.

• Christian Barrot, Managing Director and Partner, christian.barrot@alantra.com, +41 44 552 50 56

• Strategy coaching, including value creation and full potential plan development and support
• Finance organizations and performance coaching, including roadmap to improve
• Coaching c-level individuals, such as CEOs and CFOs, as well as board members
• Program management for capital markets journey

All

• Long-standing experienced partners and advisors
• Tailor-made value creation and full potential plan development and support
• Comprehensive services
• Multiple personal IPO experience
• Extensive network

• Hans Grüter
  grueter@blrpartners.com, +41 79 644 3063

• IPO readiness assessment (gap remediation and interdependency identification, and IPO roadmap development)
• IPO project planning and governance (due diligence, transaction documents, independent deal research, coordination of service providers, roadshow preparation etc.)
• Structuring services (e.g. carve out and spinoffs)
• Financial reporting and technical accounting (e.g. GAAP conversions)
• Assistance with projections, working capital and liquidity modelling, support in developing and documenting accounting policies (incl. technical support)
• Optimization of transaction structure, pricing and allocation
• Market valuation and evaluation of expected public market valuation
• M&A support (both process and preparation of deal documentation, e.g. VDD reports)

All

Deloitte is a leading accounting and advisory company in Switzerland and provides industry-specific services in the areas of Audit & Assurance, Consulting, Financial Advisory, Risk Advisory and Tax & Legal. With around 2,200 employees at six locations in Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano and Zurich (headquarters), Deloitte serves companies and institutions of all legal forms and sizes in all industry sectors.

• Viktoriya Lombardo, Director, Audit & Assurance,
  vlombardo@deloitte.ch, +41 58 279 8185

• Karina Chavez, Director, Audit & Assurance,
  kchavez@deloitte.ch,  +41 58 279 6893

• Differentiated equity stories – based on five core pillars (the “five good reasons to invest”)
• Valuation considerations: Both fundamentally (modelling; peers) & soft factor-driven (Dos & Don’ts)
• Targeting: Relevant, desired stakeholders as well as key “gatekeepers” (promotors of the equity story)
• ESG: “Reduced to the max” through focus on “materiality matrix for sustainable performance”
• Operational IR: As an extended workbench to internal team or outsourced position

Multi-year experience in IR & communications for biotech & life sciences, industrials, asset management;
experience and transactions in other sectors

The ESF bases its approach to IR on the “4 P’s of strategic share marketing”:

1) Product = Equity story
2) Price = Adequate valuation
3) Place = Relevant targets
4) Promotion = Leveraging key gatekeepers (promoters)

A core element of the framework is a differentiated equity story, including the “five good reasons to invest” – a framework developed over the past two decades with key exponents of the financial community.

• bluechip financial communications AG – The Equity Story Factory
  Dr. Thomas Schneckenburger, PhD, CFA, Founder & CEO
  tom@equitystoryfactory.com, +41 79 4079952

• Growth stage: Board assessment, aiming at its independence and appropriate skill-set, matching up-to-date financial, accounting and control systems
• Pre-IPO stage: Post-IPO governance set-up & compensation strategy, including long-term incentives; governance- and compensation-related sections of listing prospectus, roadshow documentation
• First year of listing stage: Establishment of compensation committee operations; elaboration of plan regulations, roll-out and communication of new compensation schemes; first compensation report and first AGM as a listed company
• Listed company stage: Proactive management of the AGM-to-AGM cycle to maximize processes and communication coherence; board assessments

All

• Stephan Hostettler, Managing Partner,
  Stephan.Hostettler@hcm.com, +41 79 652 34 58
  

• Linda Kohri, Manager,
  Linda.Kohri@hcm.com, +41 79 826 47 66
  

HB’s capital market experts from our Corporate Finance, Research and Active Advisory practices combine for an average experience of more than 20 years. At the same time, being a small and agile challenger, HB aims to keep processes lean for clients in order to carefully treat clients’ own resources during a transaction. We offer tailored advice in the following areas:

• Assessment of general IPO readiness (e.g. ownership structure, corporate governance, board composition)
• Market valuation and evaluation of expected public market valuation
• Assessment of IPO feasibility (e.g. business model, sector, competitors, maturity, equity story)
• Development of roadmap to close potential gaps
• Optimization of transaction structure, pricing, allocation and settlement

All except biotech

• Agile challenger with focus on advising SMEs in Swiss capital market transactions since 2011 and more than 50 Swiss capital market transactions since its inception
• Market leader in SIX-listed CHF bond transactions with a nominal amount below 100m
• Strong network to non-standard investor categories (such as family offices, (U)HNWI and independent asset managers)
• Own independent research team

• Dr. Rolf Weilenmann, Head Corporate Finance and Member of the Executive Board,
  rolf.weilenmann@helvetischebank.ch, +41 44 204 56 11
• Martin Spiess, Assistant Vice President,
  martin.spiess@helvetischebank.ch, +41 44 204 56 12

• General accounting & auditing considerations
• Internal controls
• Compensation considerations
• IPO
• Working with audit committees

Biotech (Life Sciences)

Further information about Jürg Zürcher can be found here:

https://hoffmann-partner.com/en/jurg-zurcher-team-hoffmann-partner-ag/

• Jürg Zürcher, jzuercher@hoffmann-partner.com, +41 61 512 43 00
• Further team members from Hoffmann & Partner AG will be called if required

Financial & capital market communications

• National and international transactions
• Communication of financial results
• Investor relations
• Annual and interim reports
• Best practice analyses and recommendations

Sustainability/ESG

• Advice on the integration of ESG topics in communications and positioning
• Best practice and benchmark analyses
• Materiality analyses
• Stakeholder communications
• Sustainability reporting

Positioning & media relations

• Positioning of companies, organizations, projects and individuals
• Managing media relations from A to Z: Strategy, messages, ghostwriting, Q&As, speaker function, media trainings etc.
• Media reputation and perception studies

All

IRF offers tailor-made communication solutions for companies intending to strengthen their position, profile and reputation, as well as companies that are planning a capital market transaction. From strategy consulting to the conception and implementation of individual communication measures – we support clients with all kinds of communication issues. Pragmatic, clever and effective: These aptly describe our company and the work we do.

• Martin Meier-Pfister, M.A. HSG, Partner,
  meier-pfister@irf-reputation.ch; +41 43 244 81 40
  
• Martina Müri, M.A. HSG, Senior Consultant,
  mueri@irf-reputation.ch, +41 43 244 81 40

Our research coverage stretches across more than 30 sectors and is conducted by a team of over 100 equity analysts, who operate from 11 research offices in the major European financial centers.

• Overview and synthesis of company key data
• Evaluation and outlook of the company and of the segment(s) in which it is operating (e.g. peer group analysis, rating estimation, financial model with forecast, company valuation range)
• Recommendation on whether to buy, hold or sell the shares of the company
• Distribution of the research by the service provider to its client base (e.g. via newsletter, e-mail, investor presentations)
• Access to the research analyst(s) to deep dive on evaluation, outlook, and conclusions

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Kepler Cheuvreux is a leading independent European financial services company that specializes in research, execution, fixed income and credit, structured solutions, corporate finance and asset management. The Group employs around 600 people and is present in 13 major financial centers in Europe and the US.

• Curd-Hasso von Flemming,
  cvonflemming@keplercheuvreux.com,+49 173 700 6007
• Frederic Gameiro da Conceicao,
  fgameiro@keplercheuvreux.com, +33 7 86 34 99 04

• We provide Swiss legal services in the fields of corporate law, equity/debt capital markets, public and private M&As, commercial contracts, employment & compensation, ESG, tax, IP/IT, real estate, banking & finance, and dispute resolution
• We act on behalf of issuers, book runners, underwriters and trading venues and regularly advise international clients on exchange listings and Swiss regulations
• In the area of equity capital markets, we advise on complex Swiss and international equity offerings and other equity and equity-related transactions
• Our key competences include (1) preparation (IPO readiness) and the structuring of rights offerings and other forms of equity capital raises by issuers; (2) implementation of initial public offerings (IPOs) and other rights offerings; (3) PIPEs and other private placements of listed equity and equity-linked instruments

Pestalozzi serves clients in all industries and has particular strengths in all areas of life sciences.

• Christian Leuenberger,
  Partner Capital Markets / M&A,
  christian.leuenberger@pestalozzilaw.com,
  +41442179213

• Severin Roelli, Partner Corporate / M&A,
  severin.roelli@pestalozzilaw.com,
  +41442179268

• Mercedes Chiabotti, Associate Capital Markets / M&A,
  mercedes.chiabotti@pestalozzilaw.com,
  +41 44 217 92 97

• IPO gap analysis: Important milestones to become a listed company
• IPO readiness: Get ready for an IPO well ahead of the first day of trading
• Holistic approach: Including finance, governance and ownership’s perspective
• Independent advice: Looking for the best options including plan B
• Being public: Preparation for the first year as a public company including news flow, research coverage, publication of financial results, leveraging the positive impact on the reputation/visibility of your company

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Swissbridge is a boutique firm working with privately held  as well as publicly listed companies in transformation processes, including IPO advisory, strategy and business development.

Marcel Schmid’s professional experience stems from 10 years with UBS/ Head of IPO team, 8 years with DKSH including IPO preparation and execution, 4 years as Managing Partner in Single Family Office and 4 years with his own firm “Swissbridge”, including IPO advisory
for Klingelnberg (IPO in 2018).

• Marcel Schmid, Managing Partner
  mschmid@swissbridge.com
  +41 79 698 33 38
  Dufourstrasse 31, 8008 Zurich

• Investor readiness – refine the equity story and presentation materials; due-diligence readiness; improve company’s approach to fundraising with the IPO in sight
• Investor visibility – create communication and visibility strategies to target the appropriate investor audiences for pre-IPO, IPO and beyond IPO
• Setting the pathway to an IPO – early assessment of bankers’ appetite for the deal and of a viable IPO timeline; assessment of issues that could come and “haunt” the company post-IPO and establishing strategies to address them
• IPO advisory team selection – help the company select the appropriate advisors for the respective sector/market cap
• IPO project management – act as a sparring partner for management and BoD, and as a conduit between company and the IPO advisors; manage the IPO process, thus enabling management teams to continue running their business as usual

Biotech, medtech, pharma, cleantech, ICT, industrials, consumer, real estate

Strategy consulting for IPO preparation. Starting to work with companies 1-3 years before an IPO. Getting companies investor-ready and more visible to domestic and international investors (also useful for private funding rounds), establishing the pathway to the IPO, putting all the pieces of the IPO “puzzle” together and managing the actual IPO process. Paving the way for a better “life after the IPO”.

• Leti McManus, Founder
  Leti@tigerlinkadvisors.com, +41 76 446 36 25