Sundeep Kapila

Freshfields a conseillé Saint-Gobain dans le cadre de la signature d’un accord de cession de toutes ses marques de négoce au Royaume-Uni – dont le distributeur de bois et matériaux de construction Jewson – au groupe Stark. L’activité cédée devrait générer un chiffre d’affaires d’environ 2,7 milliards d’euros en 2022 et une marge d’exploitation d’environ 2%. Elle dispose de 600 points de vente et emploie 8 900 personnes. La cession se fera sur la base d’une valeur d’entreprise de 740 millions de livres sterling, soit environ 850 millions d’euros. Saint-Gobain n’aura alors plus d’activité de distribution au Royaume-Uni. Cette opération, qui n’est soumise à aucune condition externe, devrait être finalisée au premier trimestre 2023. L'équipe Freshfields est dirigée par les associés Olivier Rogivue à Paris et Sundeep Kapila à Londres avec Michael Black, collaborateur senior, et Nicola Willson, collaborateur, pour les aspects corporate. L’équipe de Londres était également composée des associés Richard Lister pour les aspects IP et commerciaux, May Smith pour les aspects de droit fiscal, Kathleen Healy et Dawn Heath pour les aspects de droit social et droit des retraites et, Joseph Biesterfield, counsel, sur les aspects financement de l’opération.

Dec 13

1 min

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) advises The Co-operative Bank Holdings p.l.c (‘Co-operative Bank’), on its acquisition by Coventry Building Society. The Co-operative Bank provides a range of banking products and services to about 2.5m retail customers and c.94k small and medium sized enterprises (‘SME’). The Bank is committed to values and ethics in line with the principles of the co-operative movement. The Co-operative Bank is the only high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy, which gives customers a say in how their money is used. Coventry Building Society is an award-winning savings and mortgage provider, currently the 8th largest UK lender with mortgage balances at £50.3bn at the end of 2023. As a mutual, it is owned by and run for the benefit of its members (customers with an eligible savings account or mortgage). It has around 2 million members across the UK. The Co-operative Bank’s shareholders will be entitled to receive a total cash consideration of £780 million (subject to customary post-completion price adjustments). Of the total cash consideration, up to £125 million will be deferred for a period of 3 years from completion subject to the future performance of the Bank and the terms of the SPA. Completion is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals. The Freshfields team was led by partners Sundeep Kapila and Nick Jones, supported by senior associates Lisa Flanagan and Bethan Rodden. Financial regulatory advice was provided by counsel Mac Mackenzie, tax advice by partner Jill Gatehouse, employment advice by partner Holly Insley, pensions advice by partner Charles Magoffin, finance advice by partner Peter Allen and IP/IT advice by partner Richard Lister.

May 24

1 min

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Freshfields) is advising Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) in two transactions with Delivery Hero SE (Delivery Hero), including a $950m share acquisition by Uber of Delivery Hero’s foodpanda delivery business in Taiwan (foodpanda Taiwan) alongside a separate $300m acquisition of newly issued ordinary shares of Delivery Hero. The acquisition of foodpanda Taiwan is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is targeted to close in the first half of 2025. Once completed, this deal would be one of the largest ever international acquisitions in Taiwan, outside of the semiconductor industry. Learn more about this transaction here. The Freshfields team is led out of Silicon Valley by M&A partner John Fisher and associate Devony Schmidt, alongside associate Connor Barrett. The cross-practice Freshfields team included partners Rick van Aerssen, Lars Meyer and Sabrina Kulenkamp and Principal Associate Daniel von Bülow on German corporate and capital markets matters;partner Sundeep Kapila and senior associate Michael Black on UK corporate matters; partner Mena Kaplan and senior associate Marissa Yu on intellectual property matters; partner Claude Stansbury and associate Courtney Canning on tax matters; partners Alan Ryan and Ninette Dodoo and associate Ally Ampudia on antitrust matters; partner Brandon Gantus, senior associate Jeffrey Anand and associate Kristen Stidham on executive compensation and benefits matters; partners Chris Lyon and Brock Dahl and associate Noah Lipkowitz on data privacy matters and counsel Jeremiah Nelson on real estate matters. The Freshfields team was further supported by colleagues from our Frankfurt, London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam offices.

May 14

1 min

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) is advising AVEVA Group plc (‘AVEVA’) on the recommended cash acquisition by Schneider Electric SE (‘Schneider’) of the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of AVEVA not currently owned by Schneider. The acquisition values AVEVA at approximately £9,482 million on a fully diluted basis and is expected to become effective in the first quarter of 2023, subject to conditions including the receipt of AVEVA shareholder approval and foreign investment and regulatory approvals. The Freshfields team advising on the deal is being led by partners Natasha Good, Sundeep Kapila and Julian Long, alongside senior associate Meredith Bayley.

Sep 21

1 min

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (’Freshfields’) has advised Visa, Inc. (V:NYSE) (‘Visa’) on its investment in account-to-account payment platform business Form3 Group Limited (‘Form 3’). Together with the investment which will enable Form3 to continue its growth journey, the parties also announced a new commercial partnership, bringing together their capabilities in an effort to reduce high levels of fraud in real-time account-to-account payments, which includes building on Form3’s single API connectivity. Freshfields advised on all aspects of the investment, combining a cross-jurisdictional and cross-practice team across the firm’s UK, Germany, Austria and U.S. offices. The Freshfields team advising on the transaction was led by partner Sundeep Kapila, senior associate Jonathan Carver and associate Charis Chan. Financial regulatory advice was provided by partner Michael Raffan, senior associate Claire Harrop and associate Dimitris Boumpoulis. Further information on the transaction can be found here.

Sep 14

1 min