Simon von Witzleben

Simon has over a decade of corporate finance advisory experience in providing independent board advisory & committee advisory and M&A advisory i.e. cross-border buy- and sell-side M&A.

Simon specializes in providing financial, M&A and valuation advice to corporate boards, senior executives and private equity GPs and the execution of transaction opinions and board advisory valuations. He has advised public and private companies and their boards, family offices as well as private equity GPs across multiple industries, with a focus on technology and telecom, media and entertainment (TMT), software and industrial technology and services.

Simon’s most notable experience includes:

• Providing fairness opinions and valuation advice to private equity GPs and limited partner advisory committees on related fund transactions and GP-led secondary fund recapitalizations/continuation funds across EMEA. Representative private equity clients include Advent, Apollo, Barings, Carlyle, capiton, Capvis, H&F, Investindustrial, KKR, OpenGate, PAI, PSG, ThomasLloyd, TowerBrook, TPG, among others.
• Providing valuation advice, fairness and solvency opinions to public and private companies and their boards of directors across EMEA with a focus on Germany, Switzerland and the UK, in a variety of corporate transactions, including take-privates, related-party transactions, spin-offs, recapitalizations, asset sales, dividend recapitalizations, restructurings, and court settlements. Representative corporate clients include BASF, Benteler, BMW, BorgWarner, Bosch, Burda, Daimler, SAP, Scout24, Scholz, Siemens, Takata, TeamSystem, Telefónica, ThyssenKrupp, Vodafone Unitymedia, WMF, among others.
• Advising public and private TMT, industrial technology and services companies and its shareholders on strategic portfolio reviews, leading and executing cross-border buy-side and sell-side M&A processes, including corporate carve-outs and divestitures of non-core businesses, restructuring transactions, and joint ventures.

Prior to joining the firm, Simon worked as an adjunct professor/lecturer of corporate finance and strategy at the Institute of Strategic Management and Finance at the University of Ulm, Germany, where he began his professional career working as an academic and executive assistant to the director of the institute (Prof. Dr. Frank Richter, Werner Kress endowed chair). Simon developed extensive knowledge in the areas of corporate valuation, corporate strategy and M&A, taught corporate finance courses and gained advisory experience. Furthermore, Simon successfully co-founded and ran a start-up company in the e-commerce sector for several years. 

Simon holds a Diploma (equiv. M. Sc.) in Management and Economics from the University of Ulm, Germany and University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland. He received his Dr. rer. pol. from the University of Ulm. He is a named member of the Swiss Takeover Board to issue fairness opinions for Swiss-listed companies. He has published numerous academic articles on corporate finance, strategy and valuation in well-renowned journals.