Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised private equity firm Cinven’s €1.69bn sale of Host Europe Group (HEG) to GoDaddy.
In its largest acquisition, cloud platform GoDaddy has purchased the largest privately-owned web services provider in Europe as part of its continuing international expansion. The company will pay €605m to Cinven shareholders and assume net debt of €1.08bn. The transaction is expected to close by the second quarter of 2017.
Cinven returned to Freshfields with corporate partners David Higgins and Wessel Heukamp advising the private equity firm through the deal. Higgins (pictured) originally advised Cinven on its original acquisition of HEG for £438m in 2013 alongside private equity head Adrian Maguire, who will take over Higgins’ role as co-head the firm’s global financial investors sector group in January.
GoDaddy turned to California based Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with a team led by M&A partner Mike Ringler while Gleiss Lutz partner Adrian Ringel did German diligence for the company. In London Slaughter and May also advised GoDaddy on the purchase with a team including corporate finance partner William Underhill.
On Monday it emerged Freshfields advised Advent International on its purchase of V.Group from OMERS Private Equity. The private equity arm of pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System plans to reinvest in V.Group while the company’s management team will retain a minority stake in the maritime firm. Maguire and finance partners Denise Ryan and Sean Pierce acted on the deal. Weil, Gotshal & Manges co-head of private equity Marco Compagnoni advised OMERS.
In October Higgins advised Carlyle Group along with Maguire and Paris-based corporate partner Florent Mazeron as the private equity firm picked up chemicals firm Atotech from Total for $3.2bn. Finance partner Sean Lacey also acted on the deal. Latham & Watkins also advised Carlyle on financing aspects while Total turned to a Jones Day Paris team.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
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