Linklaters has advised Belgian-headquartered Delhaize Group on its successful €28bn merger with Dutch-headquartered Ahold, creating one of the largest food retailers in Europe and the United States. The transaction, completed on 24 July 2016, also represents one of the largest cross-border mergers in Europe and the largest Belgian deal completed in years.

The combined company, Ahold Delhaize has 6,500 stores and 375,000 employees. It is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels. In addition, Ahold Delhaize American depositary receipts trade over-the-counter in the United States.

The transaction, which has been structured as a cross-border merger under EU Directive 2005/56, required pioneering work from the Linklaters team, given that such a structure was untested in the Belgian market for listed companies. The deal also involved meeting antitrust requirements.

More than 45 Linklaters lawyers in a number of jurisdictions from practice groups including Corporate, Tax, Competition, Banking, Employment, Environment, Real Estate, IP/TMT and Dispute Resolution worked on the transaction.

The transaction was led from Brussels by Eric Pottier (Partner, Corporate), Thierry L’Homme (Counsel, Corporate) and Henk Vanhulle (Partner, Tax), in close cooperation with Pieter Riemer and Bart Jan Kuck (Partners, Corporate) in Amsterdam.