The S&C Paris office, first opened in 1927, is the oldest of the European offices. Today the 30+ lawyer Paris-based team conducts complementary French and U.S. law practices advising corporate, government and investment bank clients on a broad range of corporate and finance matters, including cross-border and domestic M&A (including private equity), restructuring, and equity and debt capital markets. Its practice also includes a significant French tax practice, as well as projects and litigation components. The co-head of our worldwide insurance practice is based in Paris and conducts an extensive insurance and financial institutions practice in Europe from that office. More than half of its lawyers, including five prominent French partners and senior counsel, practice French and EU law.

The Paris office is consistently recognized in the press for its work on the most novel, most economically significant and highest profile transactions.

Recent transactions include:

Mergers & Acquisitions (including Private Equity)

• Represented Crédit Agricole in the € 6.6 billion combination of Crédit Agricole’s and Société Générale’s asset management businesses (France) (2009)
• Represented the French Government, as shareholder of Thales, in Dassault Aviation’s acquisition of a 26% stake in Thales formerly owned by Alcatel-Lucent (France) (2009) 
• Represented Paris RE (Switzerland) in its € 1.5 billion sale to Partner Re (Switzerland) (2009) 
• Represented EDF (France) in its € 1.3 billion acquisition of SPE (Belgium) (2009)
• Represented UBS (Switzerland) in its $624 million acquisition of Caisse Centrale de Réescompte (France) in 2008
• Represented the financial advisor to Business Objects (France) in its $5.7 billion acquisition by Systeme Anwendungen Produkte (SAP) (Germany) in 2008
• Represented the financial advisor to NYSE Group Inc. (U.S.) in its $10.2 billion merger with Euronext N.V. (Luxembourg) in 2007
• Represented Automatic Data Processing (ADP) (U.S.) in the sale of its clearing business to Chequers Capital (France) in 2007
• Other groundbreaking transactions of prior years: 
  • Represented AXA (France) in its $1.3 billion divestiture of AXA RE to Stone Point Capital LLC (U.S.) and in its $11.3 billion acquisition of Wintherthur (Switzerland), at the time the largest-ever acquisition in the insurance industry in Europe
  • Represented France Télécacom in the € 3.3 billion divestiture to KKR (U.S.) of its shareholding in PagesJaunes, considered one of the largest LBOs ever completed in France (2006) 
  • Represented France Télécom in its € 579 million synthetic merger with Equant (Netherlands) (2005) and € 5 billion acquisition of the minority interests in Wanadoo (France) (2004)

Restructuring

• Represented Natixis in connection with the € 35 billion guarantee issued by BPCE, its parent company, to cover toxic assets held by Natixis (2009)
• Represented CIFG creditor group in connection with commutation/recapitalization transactions to restore the financial position of CIFG (2009) 
• Advised the French State in a series of loans to certain French car makers (Renault, Peugeot and Renault Trucks) amounting to € 6.5 billion in aggregate (2009) 
• Represented Goldman Sachs in connection with the refinancing of Eurotunnel (2008) 
• Represented CFF Recycling (now known as Derichebourg) in its merger with distressed company Penauille Polyservices (2007)

Securities

• Represented EDF in numerous 144A bond offerings (2010, 2009)
• Represented Suez Environnement in its spin-off from Suez (now Suez GDF) and its Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels listings in 2008
• Represented Paris RE in its € 224.5 million global initial public offering and Euronext Paris listing in 2007
• Represented the sole underwriter in the € 335.1 million capital increase of ANF, a listed subsidiary of Eurazeo, in 2007
• Other groundbreaking transactions of prior years:
  • Represented the underwriters in the € 339 million initial public offering by EDF Energies Nouvelles in 2006
  • Represented the underwriters in EDF’s € 7.5 billion privatization in 2005, considered the largest IPO ever in France 
  • Represented the underwriters in the € 1 billion initial public offering by Eutelsat in 2005 
  • Represented the issuer and selling shareholder in the € 1.25 billion initial public offering by PagesJaunes in 2004

For more about S&C’s practice in Europe, please click here.