A cross-office team from Paris and Frankfurt has advised Euler Hermes, the global leader in trade credit insurance solutions, on a collaboration with Moody's Corporation to provide credit ratings for small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-cap companies across Europe. As part of the collaboration, the firm also advised Euler Hermes on the acquisition by Moody's Corporation of a 4.99 percent stake in Euler Hermes Ratings GmbH (EHRG), a Hamburg-based ratings agency, which was previously a 100 percent subsidiary of Euler Hermes AG.

EHRG will launch its new credit ratings services combining Moody’s Investors Service’s credit ratings methodology expertise and Euler Hermes group’s experience analysing the trade credit of European companies. The new ratings service will be launched in Germany in early 2017, followed by other European countries.

The M&A team at Euler Hermes was led by François Dutertre, Head of Tax and M&A, assisted by Benjamin Bourdin. The legal team at Euler Hermes was led by Guillaume Boitel, Head of Legal M&A and Partnerships.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by Paris head of Corporate, Hubert Segain, assisted by Anaïs Le Brech and Alexandra Salanson on corporate matters and Jean-Baptiste Thomas-Sertillanges on IP/TMT matters. The Frankfurt team was led by Nico Abel (partner) assisted by Ruediger Hoffman and Tatiana Guenster on the corporate side and Wolfgang Bomba on IP/TMT aspects.