Kirkland represented Triton Partners on its acquisition of Sunweb Group, the European online tour operator. The transaction, signed on December 18, 2018, remains subject to antitrust clearance.

The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Roger Johnson and Joel Arnell with associates Sam Whittaker and Sharon Skipper. Financing was led by finance partners Chris Shield and Leon Daoud with associates Karen Ford and Oliver Trotman. Antitrust was led by partner Mike Robert-Smith with associate James Parkinson.

LONDON – Global law firm, Reed Smith advised Catella AB (Catella) - a leading pan-European organisation specialising in property investments, fund management and banking - on the acquisition of a majority stake in APAM Ltd.

Through Catella’s property fund, Catella Property Fund Management AB (CPFM), the organisation signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a majority stake in the leading UK real estate investment and asset management company, APAM Ltd.

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised asset management and investment group Tikehau Capital on its acquisition of ACE Management, a French asset management company dedicated to the aerospace, defence and cybersecurity sectors.

The transaction was finalized on December 19, 2018, having been announced in October, following approval from the French financial markets regulator Autorité des marchés financiers and the relevant competition authorities.

De Brauw was lead counsel to FrieslandCampina in its acquisition of Best Cheese America's. Further details on the deal can be seen in the email below.

Client name
Dutch Royal FrieslandCampina N.V.

Other parties involved
Best Cheese America's B.V.

Nature of transaction

With a team led by Dr. Pär Johansson from its Cologne office, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advised investment firm Odewald KMU II on the acquisition of a majority stake in GIATA GmbH.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Euronext, the leading pan-European exchange, in connection with the acquisition of a 78% interest in Commcise Software Limited (“Commcise”), a Software as a Service (“SaaS”) provider of research evaluation and commission management solutions for financial services firms, from its founders for an initial cash consideration of £27m.

CMS has advised OTP Bank Group on the acquisition of Societe Generale Banka Srbija, Serbia's fourth-biggest lender, from France's Societe Generale Group. The deal is expected to close in the coming months due to complex regulatory and merger clearance filings.

This transaction is the continuation of OTP's strategic expansion in Southeast Europe and part of the CMS mandate where CMS advises more than seven acquisitions across ten jurisdictions with a collective transaction value of over EU1bn.

Ashurst advised Santander Group in relation to its acquisition of Albert, an invoicing and expenses app for sole traders and micro-businesses. Santander Group has acquired the entire business for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition is part of Santander's mission to support the UK’s 5.7 million small business owners. The Albert app will continue to operate business as usual and there will be no disruption to the service enjoyed by its customers.

EC, which has been in operation for over 25 years, is one of the leading schools in the language travel industry and is consistently awarded and acknowledged for its innovation and its use of cutting-edge technology in teaching students the English language.

APG is Europe's second largest pension fund asset manager with €470bn of assets under management (as at 31 December 2017). Grainger is the UK's largest listed residential landlord.

Simmons & Simmons had previously advised APG on various transactions in relation to the joint venture, including the original acquisition in 2013 and its conversion to a REIT structure in 2016.