Ashurst has advised the majority shareholders of Interactif Visuel Système (IVS) on the acquisition by Essilor International, a world leader for corrective lenses, of the majority of the share capital of IVS.

Created in Paris in 1995, IVS is a world leader in technological sales support solutions for opticians. Today, IVS equips more than 14,000 outlets worldwide which represents almost 30,000 software licences. The company also offers digital marketing at the point of sale called Activ'screen, the business is the market leader in France.

The two IVS co-funders will remain significant shareholders alongside Essilor International. The transaction allowed the financial investors who have owned an equity stake since 2000, to exit their investment.

The Ashurst team was led by partner Nicolas Barberis, assisted by associate Julien Rebibo with regards to the corporate aspects, and by partner Nadine Gelli and associate Sonia Bouaffassa for the tax aspects. The sellers were advised by Aforge Finance as financial advisor (Céline Lagniez, Gautier Lefebvre, Cyril Robin). The vendor due diligence was conducted by Deloitte Finance (Emmanuel Conjard, Maud Lehman).

Essilor was advised by PriceWaterhouseCoopers as financial advisor.

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