Dentons advised private equity investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co (KKR) on the acquisition of the French start-up Captain Train by its British competitor Trainline. The latter was bought by KKR in 2015.

The transaction, worth up to €200 million, is one of the biggest start-up acquisitions in France in the past few years.

Captain Train, founded in 2009, is a French online travel agency which provides a booking platform for purchasing train tickets in Europe. The company sells about 5,000 train tickets each day and has 1.5 million users.

Trainline was founded in 1997 in the context of the liberalization of the British rail market, and has become the leader in the UK, selling €2 billion tickets every year. The company was bought by KKR in 2015 for €500 million.

Through completion of the deal, Trainline and Captain Train aim at further expanding on the European market and, eventually, centralizing the ticket purchase system on one single platform.

KKR was represented by a large team of Dentons Partners, Counsels and Associates from the Paris and London offices.