Horst Ebhardt is a Partner in our Vienna office and a member of the Corporate/M&A service line.

Horst brings 25 years of experience in private practice, specialising in complex cross-border M&A, privatisations, and restructuring transactions across Austria and the CEE/SEE region. He provides strategic advice to companies across various sectors, with a strong focus on financial institutions, life sciences, and private equity. Over the past 12 years, Horst has played a key role in some of the most notable M&A and private equity deals involving Austrian and Central European targets.

He has also been advising companies from a broad range of sectors—with a particular focus on financial institutions, life sciences and private equity—on corporate finance and governance matters..

Horst Ebhardt is the gold standard for corporate lawyers in the Vienna market, if not the region. He is exceptionally smart, without being arrogant, and always available. He also empowers the team around him.
Legal 500, 2024

RECENT ENGAGEMENTS INCLUDE ADVISING

CORPORATE, M&A AND PRIVATE EQUITY

• AGROFERT, the largest group of companies in the Czech and Slovak agriculture and food industries, on the acquisition of Borealis’ nitrogen business across Europe. The transaction valued the business on an enterprise value basis at EUR 810 million. The advice encompassed multiple CEE jurisdictions, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, and Romania
• VIENNA INSURANCE GROUP on the EUR 830 million acquisition of Aegon's insurance business in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Turkey. The assistance included competition law clearance, regulatory approvals, and foreign direct investment (FDI) clearance
• ÖBAG, the Austrian state holding company, on the spin-off and listing of the passive mobile infrastructure operations of Telekom Austria in Central Europe, as well as the renegotiation of a long-term shareholders’ agreement concerning Telekom Austria and the spun-off entity with América Móvil
• KERRY GROUP PLC, a global leader in taste ingredients and nutrition, on the acquisition of the Lactosens Biosensor Technology, a rapid lactose detection technology, from DirectSens GmbH, a Vienna-based company specializing in biosensor development
• AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS (AIP) on the Austrian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Romanian legal and regulatory aspects of the acquisition of Austin Powder Holdings Company from AGCO Corporation

EDUCATION

• 1986: London School of Economics and Political Science, LL.M.
• 1984: University of Graz, Austria, Dr. iur.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION

Vienna Bar Association

LANGUAGES

German, English