Home / People / Dr Pascal G. Favre
Portrait of Pascal G. Favre

Dr Pascal G. Favre

Managing Partner

CMS von Erlach Partners Ltd
Rue Bovy-Lysberg 2
PO Box
1211 Geneva 3
Switzerland
Languages French, English, German

Pascal Favre is the head of the Corporate/M&A and Competition Practice Groups of CMS Geneva.

Pascal regularly advises clients on all types of international and domestic M&A deals, transaction and corporate finance, corporate restructurings, relocations, corporate and commercial laws and general contract matters. His practice focuses on joint ventures and projects based both in Switzerland and abroad. Pascal also has extensive experience in acquisition finance, corporate lending, crowdfunding and collective investment schemes, with a special emphasis on those involving real estate.

Pascal is included in The Best Lawyers' 2021 for Corporate Law in Switzerland and is "highly recommended" for Banking & Finance in IFLR 1000's 2021 edition.

Pascal's Corporate/M&A practice is complemented by his solid expertise in Swiss competition and distribution laws – a combination of practice areas that is particularly valued by corporate clients.

He routinely handles the competition law aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, including notifications on concentrations. Pascal represents companies in antitrust investigations by the Swiss Competition Commission and in appeal proceedings. He also advises corporate clients on searches and internal investigations, compliance and leniency programs.

Pascal's competition work has been recognized as "impressive" by Legal 500 EMEA 2018. He also has been identified by Global Competition Review 2018 and his representation of SNCF Mobilités was highlighted in the GCR 100 Global Elite’s 18th edition.

Pascal is the author of numerous publications, and is a frequent lecturer at universities and speaker in the fields of contract and competition laws.

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One impressed market source praises his "excellent legal mind."

Chambers & Partners, Global, Corporate/M&A, Switzerland, 2022

Pascal Favre provides excellent technical advice and drafting, strong commercial guidance and is highly responsive.

The Legal 500, Commercial, Corporate/M&A, Switzerland, 2020

Pascal Favre is a very good counsel: diligent, reactive and delivering clever advice.

The Legal 500, Competition, Switzerland, 2020

Extremely pragmatic at addressing key issues and is very reliable.

IFLR1000, Financial and corporate, Switzerland, 2019

Pascal Favre is increasingly visible, already receiving praise as a brilliant up-and-coming talent.

Chambers and Partners, Competition,/Antitrust, Switzerland, 2011

Pascal Favre is extremely proactive, precise and to the point

Chambers and Partners, Competition,/Antitrust, Switzerland, 2010

Pascal Favre is extremely capable, understanding and diligent.

The Legal 500, Competition, Switzerland, 2011

Relevant experience

Corporate/M&A, Finance

  • WSP Global Inc. (TSX: WSP), one of the world's leading engineering professional services firms on its cross-border acquisition of BG Bonnard & Gardel Holding SA, one of Switzerland's leading engineering companies, along with its subsidiaries in France, Italy and Portugal.
  • DuPont (NYSE: DD), the global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions, in the Swiss component of DuPont's Mobility & Materials divestiture to Celanese.
  • Vivalto Santé Investissement SA - the investment arm of Vivalto Santé, the third largest group of private hospitals and clinics in France - in its cross-border acquisition of 75 percent interest in Groupe CIC Santé SA and of 50 percent interest in RXPM SA - Swiss groups active in the life sciences and healthcare.
  • Hyperion Insurance Group Limited, a leading UK insurance group, in its cross-border acquisition of a Swiss insurance brokerage firm and its UK and Ireland subsidiaries.
  • A world's leading oil and gas supplier, in the context of its two subsequent asset spin-off transactions in Switzerland involving, respectively, a fuel energy provider in the downstream oil and gas sector and an LPG trading company.
  • ERMEWA Group, a European leader for industrial railcars and tank containers leasing services and a member of SNCF Mobilités EPIC, in its cross-border EUR 1.5 billion debt restructuring and refinancing through a combination of multicurrency-secured bank debt and US private placement.
  • ERMEWA Group in its acquisition finance of the Raffles Lease M&A deal.
  • KfW IPEX Bank, a leading German financial institution specializing in infrastructure projects, in its cross-border several-hundred-million EUR financing of the purchase of a rental freight cars fleet and subsequent leasing operations.
  • A global leader in traceability and authentication solutions for securities instruments, in the refinancing of its term loan and revolving credit facilities.
  • CHA Technologies Group, a global leader in the field of woven and nonwoven textile and fibers, as a borrower in a cross-border multi-million US dollar syndicated credit facility transaction.
  • PRIO SA, a Swiss joint venture between SIG-i Capital AG, a private markets investment manager, and VTG AG, Europe's leading leasing and rail logistics companies, for the acquisition of a significant railcar fleet and its subsequent lease operations.
  • MICHELIN, the world’s second largest tire manufacturer, in its acquisition of a minority stake in the German automotive service provider, A.T.U Auto-Teile-Unger Handels GmbH & Co. KG, from Mobivia, a European leader in the automotive servicing and repair market.
  • SNCF Mobilités EPIC, the French largest national railway operator and a subsidiary of SNCF Group, in its acquisition of a 45% stake in BLS Cargo AG, one of the main players in the Swiss rail freight transport market.
  • INEOS, one of the world’s leading multinational corporations in the chemical industry, in its acquisition of FC Lausanne-Sport, a Swiss historic football club.
  • Meditest SA, a family-owned group based in Vevey and specialised in medical laboratories, in its sale to Unilabs, Laboratoires d’analyses médicales SA.
  • The founders of My-Store SA, Western Switzerland’s leading online outlet shop, in their sale of a 60% stake to the Swiss media company, Ringier AG.
  • Crowdpark SA on all legal, corporate and regulatory aspects of setting up and launching its real estate crowdfunding platform.
  • A global leader in rental and management of industrial wagons and containers based in Geneva in the context of a demerger and capex financing transactions.
  • A world leading brewer with respect to distribution partnership agreements and export contracts.
  • A global leader in security inks for banknotes and value documents, on several corporate, refinancing and M&A issues.
  • The world's largest manufacturer and maintainer of people-moving products based in the US, in the context of the restructuring of its European entities as well as M&A transactions in Switzerland.

Competition and Antitrust

  • Diffulivre, a Swiss company and member of the Hachette Group, in its successful appeal before the Swiss Supreme Court brought against the 2019 judgment by the Swiss Administrative Court regarding the distribution of French language books in Switzerland.
  • SNCF Mobilités on the competition law aspects of the M&A transaction with BLS Cargo AG.
  • A leading brand in luxury skincare in Europe in the structuring of its distribution network.
  • An authorized car dealer of the Volkswagen brands, in large-scale cartel proceedings by the Competition Commission against a group of automotive car dealers in the canton of Ticino.
  • Azienda elettrica ticinese in the notification to the Swiss Competition Commission of its acquisition, from Alpiq AG and PRH Holding SA, of a majority interest in Società Elettrica Sopracenerina SA.
  • A global leader in content publishing, production and distribution based in France on a concentration involving the sale of its distribution entities in Switzerland.
  • A global leader in finance protection and private-equity on a concentration in the travel agency services sector.
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Memberships & Roles

  • Swiss Bar Association (SAV/FSA)
  • Geneva Bar Association (ODAGE)
  • Swiss Association of Competition Law (ASAS)
  • Swiss Jurists Society (SJV/SSJ)
  • Swiss American Chamber of Commerce
  • Swiss M&A Experts Chamber
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Publications

Corporate/M&A

  • Recueil de contrats commerciaux, Contrat de représentation exclusive, in: Sylvain Marchand/Christine Chappuis/Laurent Hirsch (eds.), Bâle et al. 2013
  • Recueil en droit de l'énergie, Textes internationaux, européens et suisses, Geneva et al. 2011, with Isabelle Fellrath and Frank Spoorenberg
  • Les contrats spéciaux, 4th ed., Zurich et al. 2009, with Prof. Pierre Tercier
  • Le transfert conventionnel de contrat, Analyse théorique et pratique, thesis Fribourg, AISUF 246, Zurich et al. 2005
  • Best efforts clauses in Swiss law: a few considerations in the light of selected examples, in: Concerto arbitral en trois mouvements pour Pierre Tercier in: Lara Hammoud/Clarisse von Wunschheim/Marie-Noëlle Zen-Ruffinen (eds.), Geneva et al., 2013, with Prof. Marie-Noëlle Zen-Ruffinen
  • Le point sur la Partie spéciale du droit des obligations / Entwicklungen im Obligationenrecht, Besonderer Teil, Revue suisse de jurisprudence (RSJ/SJZ) 110 (2014), 109 (2013), 108 (2012), 107 (2011), 106 (2010), with Prof. Pierre Tercier
  • Renonciation anticipée à former un recours de droit public : Revirement de jurisprudence, Note à l'ATF 4P.110/2006 du 17 juillet 2006, Jusletter 23 October 2006, with Silvio Venturi

Competition and Antitrust

  • Merger Control Review, Chapter Switzerland, Law Business Research, since 2017
  • Le risque concurrence et sa gestion par le conseil d'administration d'une société anonyme, GesKR 1|2019, with Sarah Bechaalany
  • Commentaire romand, Droit de la concurrence, Commentaire des articles 4 al. 3, 9 et 10 LCart, in: Vincent Martenet/Christian Bovet/Pierre Tercier (eds.), 2nd ed., Geneva et al. 2013, with Silvio Venturi
  • Le contrôle des concentrations d'entreprises dans le secteur de l'électricité, Pratique de la Commission de la concurrence Jusletter 27 October 2014, with Jérôme Levrat
  • Les perquisitions en droit de la concurrence, "New de l'électricité" Bulletin SEV/AES 7/2010 (Association des Entreprises électriques Suisses), June 2010, with Jérôme Levrat
  • The Merger Control Review, Switzerland, in: Ilene Knable Gotts (ed.), Law Business Research, co-author of the chapter on Switzerland since 2010 to date
  • Les sanctions directes et le conseil aux entreprises : zones d'ombre, in: Marc Amstutz/Walter Stoffel/Patrik Ducrey (eds.), Le droit des cartels suisse 13 ans après le changement de paradigme, IDé, Zurich et al. 2009, with Silvio Venturi
  • L'abus de position dominante en droit de la concurrence, droit matériel, Fiches juridiques suisses N° 337, November 2007, with Silvio Venturi
  • Concentration d'entreprises : Exclusion du droit de recours des tiers, Note à l'ATF 2A.535/2004 du 14 juin 2005, Jusletter 17 October 2005, with Silvio Venturi

Other contributions

  • Developments in National Competition Laws, Swiss Report, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb (WuW), contributor since 2007 to date
  • Competition and Cartel Leniency, Practical Law, Multi-Jurisdictional Guide, Switzerland, contributor from 2009 to 2014
  • International Law Office (ILO), Swiss Competition Reports, contributor since 2007 to date

 

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Lectures list

  • 2018, 2019, Marathon du droit – Geneva Bar Association: General part of the Code of Obligations
  • 2017, 8th Edition of the Workshop on competition law by the Centre Patronal jointly with the Swiss Association of Competition Law (ASAS) and the Centre for Corporate Law (CEDIDAC), "Fee and Tariffs Recommendations"
  • 2018, 2015, 2014 and 2012, University of Geneva, Master course, Faculty of economic and social sciences, under the direction of Prof. Marie-Noëlle Zen-Ruffinen, "Direct sanctions under the Swiss Competition Act"
  • 2016 and 2014, University of Fribourg, Master course, Banking and Finance law, under the direction of Prof. Jean-Baptiste Zufferey
  • 2010 and 2009, University of Fribourg, Master course (International commercial contracts), under the direction of Prof. Pierre Tercier, "Joint Ventures in Switzerland: Key contractual issues and merger control regulation"
  • Workshop on the drafting of commercial contracts, Geneva Bar Association / University of Geneva, February 2014, Agency contract, exclusive distribution and franchising agreements, with Prof. Sylvain Marchand and Prof. Jacques de Werra
  • Development institute international, 4th International Roundtable General Counsels 2012, Geneva June 2012, Dealing with legal privilege and procedures, the headache of your legal team
  • Swiss Association of Asset Managers (VSV-ASG-SAAM), La distribution de fonds de placement, Geneva, November 2010
  • Association des entreprises électriques suisses (VSE/AES), Le droit de la concurrence – Défis pour la branche, Lausanne, April 2010
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Education

  • 2005 - Docteur en droit, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (summa cum laude, obtained three awards: Peter Jäggi Stiftung, Walther Hug Stiftung and Joseph Vigener)
  • 2004 - Bar Admission (Geneva, Switzerland, 1st ranked)
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12/05/2022
10 key as­pects of the re­vised EU com­pet­i­tion law in the field of dis­tri­bu­tion...
The new Ver­tic­al Block Ex­emp­tion Reg­u­la­tion (VBER) and the new ac­com­pa­ny­ing Ver­tic­al Guidelines (VGL) were pub­lished on 10 May 2022. The new VBER will enter in­to force on 1 June 2022 and ap­ply for the next twelve years. The new VBER/VGL in­tro­duce sev

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03/2023
CMS Switzer­land re­com­men­ded in the Cham­bers Europe Guide 2023
Cham­bers and Part­ners has pub­lished its rank­ings of Europe's lead­ing law firms and law­yers in the Europe Guide 2023. Our firm and our law­yers are lis­ted in both rank­ings for Switzer­land.
20/02/2023
CMS ad­vised WSP Glob­al Inc. in its ac­quis­i­tion of BG Bonnard & Gar­del Hold­ing...
We are happy to share that CMS Switzer­land has ad­vised WSP Glob­al Inc. (TSX: WSP) on its ac­quis­i­tion of BG Bonnard & Gar­del Hold­ing SA, one of Switzer­land's lead­ing en­gin­eer­ing con­sultan­cies, with a strong pres­ence in France and sub­si­di­ar­ies in Italy and Por­tugal. This stra­tegic deal will re­in­force WSP's pres­ence in the re­gion and bol­ster its ex­pert­ise in top three mar­kets, in­clud­ing Trans­port­a­tion & In­fra­struc­ture, Prop­erty & Build­ings and Earth & En­vir­on­ment.The CMS team was led by part­ner and head of Cor­por­ate/M&A in Geneva, Pas­cal Favre, and com­prised Kev­in Mar­cato, Francesca Scalco, Audrey Dur­and and Dav­id Müller.This cross-bor­der trans­ac­tion also in­volved CMS teams in France (lead part­ners: Arnaud Hugot, Car­oline Fro­ger-Michon et Claire Van­nini), Italy (lead part­ner: Daniela Murer) and Por­tugal (lead part­ner: Fran­cisco Xavi­er de Al­meida).
16/02/2023
CMS Switzer­land ranked in Cham­bers Glob­al Guide 2023
Cham­bers and Part­ners has pub­lished its rank­ings of the world's lead­ing law firms and law­yers in the Glob­al Guide 2023. Our firm is again lis­ted in both rank­ings for Switzer­land.
01/02/2023
CMS ad­vises Cité Ges­tion SA, through­out its ac­quis­i­tion of Sartus Cap­it­al...
In­de­pend­ent private bank Cité Ges­tion SA ("Cité Ges­tion") merged with multi-fam­ily of­fice Sartus Cap­it­al (Genève) SA ("Sartus Cap­it­al") ex­pend­ing its total as­set un­der man­age­ment around CHF 7 bil­lion.The CMS Switzer­land team led by Geneva part­ners Vaïk Müller (co-head of Bank­ing/Fin­ance) and Pas­cal Favre (Head of Cor­por­ate/M&A) ad­vised Cité Ges­tion on M&A and con­trac­tu­al as­pects of the un­der­ly­ing in­vest­ment trans­ac­tions.Geneva-based Sartus Cap­it­al was foun­ded in 2016 and ac­quired by its man­age­ment in 2021. Cité Ges­tion was foun­ded in 2009 as an in­de­pend­ent as­set man­ager be­fore be­ing au­thor­ized as a bank by the Swiss Fin­an­cial Mar­ket Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity FINMA in 2022. Fol­low­ing this mer­ger, Cité Ges­tion’s total as­sets un­der man­age­ment will reach around CHF 7 bil­lion. The com­bined en­tity em­ploys about 100 people at in Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, and Lugano.
10/11/2022
CMS ad­vised DuPont in its M&M Di­vestit­ure to Celanese
 The glob­al in­nov­a­tion lead­er with tech­no­logy-based ma­ter­i­als and solu­tions, DuPont (NYSE: DD), has di­vested on Novem­ber 1, 2022, the ma­jor­ity of its former Mo­bil­ity & Ma­ter­i­als seg­ment (the “M&M Di­vestit­ure”) to Celanese.Dr Pas­cal Favre led the Geneva team of CMS Switzer­land who ad­vised DuPont Switzer­land and handled all as­pects of the Swiss com­pon­ent of the M&M Di­vestit­ure. The team fur­ther com­prised Audrey Dur­and, Kev­in Mar­cato and Dav­id Müller.For more in­form­a­tion on the trans­ac­tion, please vis­it:  ht­tps://www.dupont.com/news/dupont-com­pletes-mo­bil­ity-ma­ter­i­als-di­vestit­ure-to-celanese.html
13/09/2022
CMS ad­vised Dif­fulivre
Dif­fulivre's suc­cess­ful ap­peal be­fore the Swiss Su­preme Court in the French lan­guage books case
18/08/2022
The Mer­ger Con­trol Re­view in Switzer­land
In­tro­duc­tion Mer­ger con­trol in Switzer­land is gov­erned primar­ily by the Fed­er­al Act on Car­tels and Oth­er Re­straints of Com­pet­i­tion (CartA) and the Mer­ger Con­trol Or­din­ance (MCO; see Sec­tion III). These...
15/07/2022
CMS ad­vised Viv­alto Santé on its ac­quis­i­tion of a stake in Groupe CIC Santé...
Viv­alto Santé has ac­quired a ma­jor­ity stake in Groupe CIC Santé, a group foun­ded in 2007 by Dr. Maire, which op­er­ates three clin­ics in Switzer­land, spe­cific­ally in can­ton of Vaud and Val­ais, as well as a stake in RX­PM, a com­pany also en­tirely owned by Dr. Maire which op­er­ates in the field of ra­di­ology. This trans­ac­tion will al­low Viv­alto Santé to es­tab­lish it­self in Switzer­land and to ac­cel­er­ate its sig­ni­fic­ant in­ter­na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. This in­vest­ment, along with the re­sources that Viv­alto Santé will mo­bil­ise, will en­able Groupe CIC Santé to strengthen its or­gan­isa­tion and con­tin­ue to de­vel­op new clin­ics in line with pa­tient­s' ex­pect­a­tions.The CMS team ad­vising on the French law as­pects of this trans­ac­tion con­sisted of Arnaud Hugot, part­ner, and Ant­oine Mel­chi­or, as­so­ci­ate, for the cor­por­ate/M&A as­pects and Laurent Hepp, part­ner, and Am­broise Roux, as­so­ci­ate, for the tax as­pects.The CMS team ad­vising on the Swiss law as­pects con­sisted of Dr. Pas­cal Favre, part­ner, and Audrey Dur­and, as­so­ci­ate, for the Cor­por­ate/M&A as­pects and An­drio Orler, part­ner, for the tax law as­pects. Viv­alto Santé was ad­vised by PwC for the fin­an­cial audit.The sellers were ad­vised by Dupraz Sulc, rep­res­en­ted by Timo Sulc, part­ner.CMS Switzer­land­Dr Pas­cal Favre, Part­ner, Cor­por­ate/M&AAudrey Dur­and, As­so­ci­ate, Cor­por­ate/M&AAndrio Orler, Part­ner, Tax law­CMS FranceArnaud Hugot, Part­ner, Cor­por­ate/M&AAn­toine Mel­chi­or, As­so­ci­ate, Cor­por­ate/M&ALaurent Hepp, Part­ner, Tax lawAm­broise Roux, As­so­ci­ate, Tax law
11/04/2022
CMS Switzer­land re­cog­nised by The Leg­al 500
Rank­ings of CMS Switzer­land in The Leg­al 500 EMEA 2022 edi­tion
03/2022
CMS Switzer­land re­com­men­ded in the Cham­bers Europe Guide 2022
Cham­bers and Part­ners has pub­lished its rank­ings of Europe's lead­ing law firms and law­yers in the Europe Guide 2022. Our firm and our law­yers are lis­ted in both rank­ings for Switzer­land.
20/01/2022
CMS Switzer­land ranked in Cham­bers Glob­al Guide 2022
Cham­bers and Part­ners has pub­lished its rank­ings of the world's lead­ing law firms and law­yers in the Glob­al Guide 2022. Our firm is again lis­ted in both rank­ings for Switzer­land.
31/08/2021
CMS ad­vises the "GIMS" on the cor­por­ate and con­trac­tu­al as­pects of the...
The Geneva In­ter­na­tion­al Mo­tor Show (GIMS) an­nounced its stra­tegic part­ner­ship with Qatar Tour­ism at a press con­fer­ence held on 25 Au­gust 2021 at the Doha Ex­hib­i­tion & Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. The parties have joined forces to de­vel­op and host a newly de­signed Qatar Geneva In­ter­na­tion­al Mo­tor Show, whose first edi­tion is ex­pec­ted for the fall of 2022 or 2023.