Private and Public M&A
Our Corporate & M&A practice includes 9 partners, 2 counsels and 17 lawyers.
The department covers the broad range of Belgian corporate work, including M&A, capital markets, acquisition finance, joint ventures, private equity, corporate litigation and merger control, as well as assisting clients in both national and cross-border transactions, both private and public.
M&A work represents a significant portion of our targeted activity and our M&A practice is recommended in Legal 500 and Practical Law Company - Which Lawyer. Our M&A partners are nominated as leading lawyers in international directories such as Legal 500-Europe and the European Legal Experts of Legal Business. The 2008 edition of Legal 500-Europe said of our Corporate practice that it "has seen steady growth in M&A activity on 38 transactions in a year". One rival says "I like their work and they have been busier this year". In 2009, Legal 500 praised the role played by Cédric Guyot on behalf of the largest syndicate of shareholders of Fortis Holding in connection with the recent Government rescue plan that transferred the banking and insurance business lines of Fortis to BNP Paribas. And Vincent Dirckx was recommended in Legal 500-Europe for his "technical insight, commercial ability and common sense".
This success is due to our M&A lawyers having assisted hundreds of enterprises in relation to the Belgian law aspects of both local and international mergers, acquisitions and sales of assets and shares, public takeovers, auctions, take privates, restructurings (from refinancing to insolvency proceedings), joint ventures (whether incorporated or not), and general corporate and company law work in virtually all business sectors. They have extensive experience in advising local and non-Belgian M&A players, including industrial companies, real estate investors, investment and commercial banks, financial advisors and public authorities. The deals we do are of all levels of complexity and scale. As business lawyers with a hardworking culture and a high degree of responsiveness, we are more than mere legal technicians to our clients. As a result, we have been exposed to the full range of Belgian and international issues purchasers and sellers encounter in a M&A transaction: we help structure deals around legal and business risks and uncertainties.
A critical component of our practice is our acquisition finance capability. It has a substantial experience in acquisition capital structures and has in-depth knowledge of senior debt structures and of more complex arrangements, such as vendor finance and hybrid capital structures (combining senior, second lien and mezzanine debt).