Laurent Legein’s practice includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity and equity capital markets transactions.
Laurent joined the firm as a partner in late 2006. Prior to joining Cleary Gottlieb he spent 12 years in another major international law firm.
Notable Experience
M&A AND PRIVATE EQUITY
Public M&A. Representations of bidders, targets or selling shareholders in many domestic and international public M&A transactions such as:
- Ontex in the unsolicited bid by PAI Partners
- D’Ieteren in its bid for Moleskine
- F&I’s in its bid for Spadel
- Macintosh’s tender offer on Brantano
- Quick Restaurants and its shareholders in CDCCI’s bid for Quick
- Asahi Glass in the take-private of Glaverbel
FIG M&A. Many of the most significant FIG (financial institutions) M&A transactions in Belgium, such as representation of:
- Dexia in multiple transactions including:
- its €3.1 billion acquisition of Artesia Bank Corporation
- its 2008 €6 billion recapitalization
- the sale of Financial Security Assurance to Assured Guaranty
- the 2011/2012 orderly resolution plan
- the sale of Dexia BIL to Precision Capital and the Luxembourg State
- the sale of RBCD
- the €4 billion sale of Dexia Banque Belgique (now Belfius) to the Belgian State, and
- its €5.5 billion recapitalization in 2012 - Petercam and its shareholders in the Petercam / Degroof merger
- Anbang in:
- the acquisition of Delta Lloyd Bank
- its (ultimately withdrawn) bid for Novo Banco (Portugal) - JC Flowers’ in its acquisition of Fidea (2011) and its resale to Anbang (2014)
- Allianz in:
- the sale of AGF Bank to ING
- the acquisition of Mensura
- Dexia in multiple transactions including:
Strategic M&A. Representation of buyers or sellers in domestic and international strategic M&A transactions such as:
- AB InBev in the combination of its beer business in Russia and Ukraine with Anadolu Efes
- Bekaert in:
- the merger of its Ropes division with Bridon to form BBRG, and its subsequent acquisition of the shares of OTPP in BBRG
- the acquisition of Pirelli’s captive steel cord business
- the acquisition of Bridgestone’s steelcord manufacturing plants
- the sale of its Specialty Films activities to Saint-Gobain
- the sale of its worldwide industrial coatings business to Element Partners - Ontex in:
- its acquisition of Grupo Mabe in Mexico
- its acquisition of Hypermarcas’ personal hygiene business in Brazil - Umicore in the sale of its Zinc Chemicals business to Open Gate
- PSA, a Temasek subsidiary, in its acquisition of Hesse Noord Natie
- BPB in the acquisition of Etex’s interest in Gyproc
- GIB in the sale of Inno to Kaufhof
- Banksys in the spin-off of its “Proton” smart card business and the sale of minority interest to Amex, Visa, Interpay and ERG
Private equity. Many major LBO transactions such as:
- Alpha Private Equity in its acquisition of Ipcom
- D’Ieteren in the sale of a 40% interest in Belron to funds advised by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, valuing Belron at an enterprise value of €3 billion
- CVC Capital Partners in its acquisition of Campbell Soup Europe, now known as Continental Foods
- BC Partners in its acquisition of Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (2007) and its subsequent resale to Charterhouse (2011)
- Quick Restaurants and its shareholders in CDCCI’s bid for Quick
- Aviapartner and its shareholders in the sale of Aviapartner to 3i
- PPM Ventures in its acquisition of Sterigenics
JVs and minority investments. Representation of privately-held companies and their reference shareholders in investments by financial or strategic partners, such as:
- D’Ieteren in the sale of a 40% interest in Belron to funds advised by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, valuing Belron at an enterprise value of €3 billion
- Vandemoortele and its shareholders in a quasi-equity investment by Gimv (2009) and the subsequent repurchase of GIMV’s interest by Safinco (2016)
- Carmeuse and its shareholders in a minority investment by Cobepa
EQUITY CAPITAL MARKETS
Representation of issuers or underwriters in:
- IPOs. The initial public offerings of:
- Ontex
- Celyad
- Nyrstar
- bpost
- Elia System Operator
- RHJI
- Belgacom - Rights issues and other equity offerings. Follow-on equity offerings by:
- Befimmo (2007, 2009 and 2016)
- Nyrstar (2011, 2014, 2016)
- Hamon (2006)
- Quick (2003)
- Dexia (2000) - ABBs. Multiple primary and secondary accelerated bookbuilt placements of shares including by:
- Umicore
- Ontex
- Nyrstar
- Dexia - Equity-linked. Convertible bond issues by:
- Bekaert
- Nyrstar (2009, 2011, 2013, 2016)
- IPOs. The initial public offerings of:
Publications
- “The New Prospectus Regulation – The Story So Far,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, March 2019 (co-author)
- “Le nouveau règlement Abus de Marché et ses conséquences pour les sociétés cotées belges,” TRV-RPS 2016, p. 479-522.
- “Questions relatives à la notion de concert en droit financier belge,” Dieux, X. and Legein, L., Droit bancaire et financier 2012/III-IV, p. 143-157.
- “Quelques questions spéciales de droit des sociétés en rapport avec les opérations d'appel au marché des capitaux,” Droit bancaire et financier 2008/V, p. 247-274.