New Partners Boost International M&A and Acquisition Finance Capabilities in Europe
Squire Patton Boggs continues its strategic expansion of its global Private Equity Practice in Europe with further significant hire in France consisting of two partners.
Private equity lawyer Anthony Guillaume has been appointed a Corporate partner and acquisition leverage finance lawyer Benjamin Marché has been appointed partner in the Financial Services Practice in the firm’s Paris office. M. Guillaume joins from the Corporate group at DLA Piper, and M. Marché joins from Shearman & Sterling in Paris.
Jonathan Jones, European managing partner, said: “This major investment in Paris is the latest phase of our multi-jurisdictional strategy to expand our private equity (PE) and corporate M&A capabilities across Europe, strengthening our international and cross-border offering to the sector. I’m delighted to welcome Anthony and Benjamin, whose varied expertise in this area and experience of the market is well-established and wide-ranging. With this latest appointment, following on from our successful investment in Madrid with Teresa Zueco and a team of six PE lawyers, we are more than able to support our international PE and corporate clients on all their transactional and regulatory needs in Europe. We will be adding to our resources at this high level here and in other locations too. Expect to see more soon.”
Head of the European Private Equity team, partner Paul Mann, added: “Our business plan, with a key element including high-calibre lateral hires, has in the past couple of years successfully broadened the scope and depth of the work we do in the PE sector. The Paris corporate team, led by Tony Reed, Chris Wilde, Charles Fabry and Denis Barat, already acts for a number of excellent French firms. The arrival of Anthony and Benjamin will accelerate the roll out of our strategy, generating further cross-referral work and greater pan-European transactional and funds opportunities.”
Tony Reed, EMEA chair for Corporate, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Anthony and Benjamin to the Paris team. By leveraging our willingness to work together across multiple offices and disciplines and building on an existing blue chip client base, I am convinced that we are well on the way to being recognized as one of the leading corporate teams on the Paris market.”
Also welcoming the new partners to the office, Carole Sportes, managing partner in Paris, said: “It’s great to have Anthony and Benjamin with us. Our business is thriving across all our practices and the increased opportunities to support clients in France and abroad with their corporate transactions are a strategic focus for us. So our new partners and team will be a considerable additional boost to our offering in France and clients will see the benefits.”
M. Guillaume has extensive experience of private equity transactions, including M&A, and of advising funds, listed and non-listed companies and management teams. He started his career at Paul Hastings in 2011 and spent four years at White & Case before joining DLA Piper in 2018. He has worked with a range of French, other European and US private equity houses on transactions across the mid-market. In addition to French, M. Guillaume speaks fluent English. Admitted as an avocat at the Paris Bar, he also holds a degree in Law from the University of Rennes and an LLM from the University of Exeter.
M. Marché specialises in banking and finance with a particular emphasis on leverage buy-out transactions. He has extensive French domestic and international experience of acquisition leverage financing, acting for both financing providers (senior or subordinated) and sponsors and borrowers. He works closely with PE firms in the French market where his role is to advise funds, as well as borrowers, in the negotiation of the financing structuration of their acquisition. In addition, M. Marché has considerable restructuring transaction expertise having advised both debtors and creditors/funds in restructuring projects, as well as experience in complex infrastructure investment and financing. With a law degree from the University of Rennes, M. Marché started his career at Frieh Bouhenic and has worked at other leading international law firms in Paris.
Squire Patton Boggs’ global Private Equity Practice comprises specialist corporate lawyers, experienced in advising private equity and venture capital investors, investee companies and management teams. The team supports clients throughout the complete private equity and venture capital investment cycle. The Private Equity Practice continues to expand, with nearly 25 PE lawyers added in the past two years, as well as private equity tax specialist Charles Briand in Paris.
Squire Patton Boggs has advised on several major transactions in the French market across multiple industry sectors in the past few months, including acting for:
- Kongsberg Automotive, a leading European automotive manufacturer, on the sale of its Interior Comfort Systems business unit to Lear Corporation;
- Air Liquide on its investment in H2V Normandy, which aims to build a large-scale electrolyzer of at least 200 MW for the production of renewable hydrogen in France;
- Trajan Capital (Edmond de Rothschild PE) on its leveraged buy-out of Adfinitas Group B.V., a leading data driven marketing agency focusing on fundraisings for non-profit organizations;
- Arthema on IK Partners’ leveraged buy-out of French leading e-health player Sofia Developpement;Scalian, an investee of Cobepa and Andera Partners, on its bolt-on acquisition of digital transformation specialist Noveane; and
- Avicenne Invest S.A., Luxemburg holding company, on the second and final stage of the sale (the remaining 30%) of health economics and market access group, Creativ-Ceutical S.A.R.L., to healthcare and communications group Huntsworth.