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.

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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      - its (ultimately withdrawn) bid for Novo Banco (Portugal)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

  • Strategic M&A. Representation of buyers or sellers in domestic and international strategic M&A transactions such as:

    • Ottobock in its acquisition of V!GO International
    • 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
      - its acquisition of Freeport-McMoRan’s cobalt refining and cathode precursor operations in Kokkola, Finland
    • 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, and in its subsequent exit sale of Continental Foods to GBfoods, a division of Spanish food group Agrolimen
    • 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
    • The Kiskovski family as the shareholders of MAK-System in a significant investment by The Carlyle Group in MAK-System

  • 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

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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)

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Publications

“Shareholder Rights Directive II: The Belgian Perspective,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020 (co-author).

“Emergency Equity Raises – Practical Guide for Belgian Companies,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020 (co-author).

“Belgium’s Response to Mitigate the Effects of COVID-19,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, March 2020 (co-author).

“Application du règlement abus de marché: aux opérations de fusion-acquisition et d’OPA,” Financiële Regulering: Een Dwarsdoorsnede, October 2019.

“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.