Alastair Brown

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) is advising international private equity firm Cinven, and leading global investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, (‘Ontario Teachers’’), on an investment in the combination of group.ONE and the dogado group (‘dogado’). Cinven and Ontario Teachers’ have today announced that the Seventh Cinven Fund, in partnership with Ontario Teachers’, have agreed to acquire and combine group.ONE and dogado. The combination of group.ONE and dogado will create a leading pan-European one-stop-shop provider of online presence solutions for small- and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’) and small-office home-offices (‘SOHOs’) including domain, web hosting, cloud hosting, business software and digital marketing services. The Freshfields team advising Cinven and Ontario Teachers’ is led by financial sponsors partners Alastair Brown, Victoria Sigeti and Wessel Heukamp, financing and capital markets partner Aled Batey, antitrust, competition and trade partner Martin McElwee, and tax partners May Smith and David Beutel. This latest acquisition carries on Freshfields’ long-standing relationships with Cinven and Ontario Teachers’, having also advised Cinven this year on its acquisition of life insurer International Financial Group Limited and Ontario Teachers’ on the sale of Camelot. Further information on Cinven and Ontario Teachers’ investment can be found here.

Dec 5

1 min

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) a conseillé Cinven dans le cadre de son entrée en négociations exclusives en vue de l’acquisition d’une participation majoritaire dans Euro Techno Com Group (‘ETC’), distributeur spécialisé dans le secteur des infrastructures de télécommunication et de technologie, auprès de Carlyle. Le fondateur et PDG, Cédric Varasteh, conservera une participation significative dans la société. Carlyle restera au capital en tant qu’actionnaire minoritaire. Fondé en 1993 et employant plus de 1 100 salariés, ETC intervient dans la conception, l'approvisionnement et la distribution de matériaux, d'outillages et d'équipements pour installer, construire et entretenir des infrastructures de réseaux fixes, mobiles et digitaux. Le groupe français compte environ 14 000 clients, des opérateurs télécoms et des installateurs de réseaux, principalement aux Etats-Unis et en Europe. L’opération demeure soumise aux autorisations réglementaires habituelles. L’équipe Freshfields ayant assisté Cinven à Paris était composée de Nicolas Barberis et Julien Rebibo, associés, Myriam Khetib-Khatiri, Brice Trevisan, Manon Faurie et Nora Chekhab, collaborateurs, sur les aspects corporate ; Stéphanie Corbière, associée, et Samvel Der Arsenian, collaborateur, en financement ; Christel Cacioppo, associée, et Célia Kirren, collaboratrice, sur les aspects de droit social ; et François Gordon, counsel, Hélène Lallemand, collaboratrice senior, Laéna Bouafy et Anaïs Jennepin, collaboratrices, sur les aspects antitrust. L'équipe multijuridictionnelle comprenait également à New York : Zheng Zhou, associé, Sofia Bernaciak et Chinyere Obi, collaboratrices, sur les aspects corporate ; Stephanie Brown Cripps, counsel, et Jennifer King, collaboratrice, sont intervenues sur les aspects compliance ; Aino Makisalo, collaboratrice senior, et Skyler Splinter, collaborateur, en financement ; Menachem Kaplan, associé, et Daniel Spencer, collaborateur, sur les aspects de propriété intellectuelle ; Lori Goodman, associée, et Lina Zhu, collaboratrice, sur les aspects de droit social ; Christine Lyon, associée, et Brock Dahl, counsel, ont conseillé sur les aspects de data protection depuis notre bureau de la Silicon Valley. A Londres, Alastair Brown, Giles Pratt et Victoria Sigeti, associés, James Booth, Vincent Lim et Katie Sa, collaborateurs, et Herman Ahmad, trainee, sont intervenus sur les aspects corporate ; David Mendel, associé, Guy Huffen, collaborateur, et Simran Sidhu, trainee, sur les aspects de droit social. A Bruxelles, Martin McElwee, associé, Konstantin Bondarenko, collaborateur, et Loana-Virginia Motoc, trainee, sont intervenus sur les aspects antitrust et réglementaire. Gernot Fritz, counsel à Vienne, a conseillé sur les aspects RGPD.

Jun 10

2 min

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) is advising Cinven on its majority investment in Alter Domus, a leading global provider of end-to-end tech-enabled fund administration and corporate services across private equity, real assets, and private debt. Cinven will support the long-term strategic growth of Alter Domus, working in close partnership with Alter Domus’ founders and Permira. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The Freshfields team was led by private capital partners Victoria Sigeti and Alastair Brown and senior associate Jay Swain together with financing and capital markets partners Aled Batey and Haden Henderson. James Smethurst was the partner leading on financial regulatory matters, partner May Smith advised on tax matters, partner Martin McElwee on antitrust and partner David Mendel on employment and incentives. This latest acquisition carries on Freshfields’ long-standing relationship with Cinven, having recently advised Cinven on its investment in group.One and its acquisitions of Master Builders Solutions, Netceed and life insurer International Financial Group Limited.

Mar 5

1 min

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (“Freshfields”) is advising Warburg Pincus on its agreement to acquire Specialist Risk Group (“SRG”), an insurance intermediary, from HGGC and Specialist Risk Group’s management team. SRG was launched in January 2020 under the leadership of Group CEO Warren Downey and Group Deputy CEO Lee Anderson and currently employs over 600 people. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. It is anticipated that Temasek, the Singapore-headquartered global investment company, and SRG management, will also invest in SRG alongside Warburg Pincus at closing of the transaction. The Freshfields team is being led by partners Patrick Ko and Alastair Brown, together with partners James Smethurst on financial services regulatory matters; Tom McGrath on competition aspects; May Smith on tax matters; Richard Lister on IP/IT matters; Ali Kirby-Harris on compliance matters; Holly Insley on employment matters; and Victoria Hills on real estate matters.

May 29

1 min

Freshfields is advising international private equity firm Cinven on its majority investment in Grant Thornton UK, one of the UK’s leading diversified professional services firms offering audit, tax, and advisory services. Founded in 1904, Grant Thornton is one of the UK’s largest professional services firms, with over 240 partners and 5,500 employees across more than 20 offices. Cinven’s investment will support Grant Thornton’s strategy to drive growth through technology enablement, talent development, and expanding its leadership in the professional services sector. The transaction is subject to partner ratification, regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions. A cross-practice Freshfields team in London advising Cinven was led by private capital partners James Scott and Alastair Brown, with leveraged finance partner Aled Batey leading on debt financing. James Smethurst provided financial regulatory advice, while merger control and FDI matters were handled by Martin McElwee. Partner David Mendel advised on people and reward workstreams, Dawn Heath on pensions matters and May Smith led on tax matters.

Nov 21

1 min