Willkie’s Paris office represents Bim, a holding company with a well-established presence in the hospitality and tourism sectors, on the sale of AMAC Group.

Willkie advised Bim on the sale of outdoor hotel operator AMAC Group to the Vacalians Group, a leader in the European outdoor accommodation market, controlled by the Permira funds.

This transaction will allow the Vacalians Group to strengthen its position in the outdoor accommodation market in France and in Europe in terms of turnover, number of destinations, locations and clients.

Client name
Haardt Beheer B.V.

Other parties involved
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, FutureWhiz Media B.V.

Nature of transaction
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP) announced the acquisition of Squla, the leading consumer education brand for parents and their children in the Netherlands. Launched in 2010 and based in Amsterdam, Squla provides interactive educational tools for primary school students. Squla is linked to the national curriculum and is designed to supplement a students' education in a fun and adaptive way.

International law firm CMS has advised the shareholders and management of leading legal business intelligence provider, Globe Business Media Group, on its acquisition by Law Business Research Ltd., a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners VI, LP.

Globe is a leading provider of business intelligence for the international legal and intellectual property markets. It is based in the UK and Hong Kong and has a range of products including Globe’s market-leading flagship platform, Lexology.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer ('Freshfields') has advised GuoLine Overseas Limited (‘GuoLine’), a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Hong Leong Company (Malaysia) Berhad (‘Hong Leong’), on its proposed privatisation of Hong Kong-listed Guoco Group Limited (‘Guoco’). The offer price is approximately HK$12.5bn (US$1.6bn).

Paris – Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that it has advised Astorg and the other selling shareholders of the Metrologic Group, in connection with the sale of 100% of their shares and voting rights in the Metrologic Group to Sandvik AB.

Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has advised the international technology group Körber AG in the sale of United Grinding Group, Körber's Business Area Machine Tools. Following the approval of the relevant supervisory authorities, the transaction has been closed with effect from the end of June 29, 2018. The new ownership structure consists of a strategically oriented pool of investors organized by the Swiss BZ Bank Aktiengesellschaft.

Baker McKenzie has advised the investment firm Platinum Equity in the context of the sale of Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) to Cerberus Capital Management for an amount of around €1.2 billion.

Created in 1971, WFS, whose registered office is in Paris, is the global leader in air freight services and one of the leading providers of ground handling and technical services. The Group, which operates in 22 countries and 198 airports spread over the 5 continents, has more than 22,000 employees and makes an annual turnover of more than €1.2 billion.

Schulte advised Sustainable Growth Advisers (SGA), an employee-owned investment manager, in its sale of a majority stake to Virtus Investment Partners Inc., which operates as a multi-manager asset management business. SGA has $11.6 billion in assets under management in U.S. and international growth equity strategies.

DLA Piper represented IO Education, a K-12 education technology company and a portfolio company of LLR Partners, in its acquisition by Illuminate Education, an education technology company. Atlanta-based IO Education has been a leader in the education technology industry for over 18 years, and has been on a mission to empower educators through data to improve educational outcomes. IO Education's award-winning solutions are used in all 50 states by over 7,500 schools and 120,000 educators, supporting instruction for over six million students.

Eversheds Sutherland has assisted Brady Sweden Holding AB in connection with the disposal of Runelandhs Försäljnings AB to Gerdmans Inredningar AB, a company within the TAKKT Group.

Runelandhs was founded in 1992 and sells interior products and equipment for offices, warehouses and industries.

Eversheds Sutherland´s lead team included Ulrika Sparrman and Dane Stattin.