Clairfield strengthens German M&A advisory business with Johannes Schmid as new partner in Düsseldorf

Clairfield International is pleased to welcome Johannes Schmid as a partner based in Düsseldorf. With more than 15 years of experience in investment banking, Johannes further enhances the transaction and sector expertise of Clairfield’s M&A advisory business in Germany. Johannes joins partners Darius Kianzad and Dirk Middelhoff in Düsseldorf, an important hub for German Mittelstand companies.

Over his career, Johannes has gained valuable experience working in different types of financial institutions ranging from bulge bracket investment bank to global universal bank to M&A boutique. He has advised on disposals, acquisitions, public takeover offers, privatizations, IPOs, and secondary offerings.

Before joining Clairfield International Deutschland, Johannes was a senior banker at HSBC Germany where he played a major role in repositioning and growing the German M&A business with a focus on crossborder transactions over the last ten years. Prior to HSBC, Johannes worked at a London-based independent M&A boutique, focusing on clients across Europe. Johannes began his career as an analyst at Lehman Brothers, where he was part of the German M&A team based in Frankfurt and subsequently joined the German equity capital markets team based in London as an associate. Johannes graduated from European Business School (EBS) with a master’s degree in business administration.

Johannes takes a generalist approach across industries but has developed significant expertise in the industrials, metals and mining, media and technology sectors. This expertise complements the sector knowledge of Düsseldorf partners Darius Kianzad (healthcare and energy) and Dirk Middelhoff (technology and telecom).

Clairfield is an international corporate finance firm that provides advisory services, mainly in crossborder mergers and acquisitions, to international corporations, family-owned businesses, and financial investors. Clairfield’s focus is the middle-market segment, designing and executing transactions of up to EUR 500 million in enterprise value. In Germany Clairfield advises clients through three offices (Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart) with nine partners and 25 professionals, being one of the largest mid-cap M&A boutiques in the DACH region. In recent months the team has closed landmark deals in the hospital sector and in innovative and cloud technologies.

“We would like to welcome Johannes Schmid in our team in Düsseldorf,” says Darius Kianzad, managing partner of Clairfield International in Germany. “Johannes will significantly strengthen our M&A platform in Duesseldorf and the overall expertise in some of our core industry sectors where we are dedicated to providing superior advice and adding value for our clients.”

“I am very excited to join Clairfield as a partner. Clairfield offers an excellent platform to bring sector knowledge, senior level attention, and worldwide access to mid-market transactions. I look forward to become part of the growth success story of Clairfield in Germany,” says Johannes Schmid.