Karl Apel

Chief Legal Officer

Karl has functioned as Senior Legal Counsel in London for well over a decade with Total, the French energy major.
His role encompassed all legal, regulation, compliance and company secretarial aspects of Total’s renewables and derivatives business.
His combined advisory and executive experience has afforded Karl a holistic view of corporate management and finance.
In recent years, Karl has led a Deutsche Bank team as board director and relationship manager of a portfolio of capital markets and real estate investment companies. Board director of the Battersea Power Station Redevelopment.
In recent years, Karl has led a Deutsche Bank team as board director and relationship manager of a portfolio of capital markets and real estate investment companies. Board director of the Battersea Power Station Redevelopment.

Financing

Karl was Capital Markets board director and relationship manager of J.P. Morgan’s global Corsair note issuance programme. He developed a way to market for investors who were otherwise lacking this capability. This by way of investing into Corsair (total investment value ten billion USD).
These funds being utilised for frequent capital markets’ notes issues (typically 100 million USD / 1 billion yen each over fifteen years, for which securities were bought). Karl also assisted J.P Morgan’s in-house / external local legal counsel, in respect of producing legal opinions for new markets and products.
Case in point being J.P. Morgan wishing to trade a particular new to market financial product. The crux here was whether a licence was required, to trade the product. Such a licence was unavailable to a company like theirs, (assuming a licence was indeed needed). Trading without an appropriate licence obviously having serious consequences.

M&A

Either as advisor, or executive, M&A has remained a core area of responsibility. This includes licensing, collaboration and private financing documentation for early-stage companies. Negotiating and closing deals whilst navigating today’s complex and ever more regulated landscape:

Strategic acquisition of distressed assets;
Spin-offs, carve-outs and divestitures;
Private equity funded buyouts;
Venture capital funding;
Deals with academic, medical and research institutions.