Paul de Vries
Notaris | Partner
Sectors
Languages
Dutch
English
German
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Paul specialises in public and private M&A and other strategic corporate transactions. He has extensive experience in advising on cross-border restructurings, capital market transactions and public takeover bids, creating joint ventures and complex corporate structures and advising on corporate governance matters. In 2015, he practised in the firm’s New York office.
Furthermore, Paul is a Professor of "Cooperation & Transactions" at Utrecht University (UU), and a frequent speaker and author on topics of company law and corporate governance. He is an editorial board member of Sdu Comments on Company Law, and board member of the Royal Commercial Law Association.
Paul is also part of Houthoff’s multidisciplinary team, with experts in corporate governance and regulatory and corporate litigation, carrying out governance stress tests to improve and reinforce governance practices. Read more about the governance stress test.
Paul is a member of Houthoff's Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
Furthermore, Paul is a Professor of "Cooperation & Transactions" at Utrecht University (UU), and a frequent speaker and author on topics of company law and corporate governance. He is an editorial board member of Sdu Comments on Company Law, and board member of the Royal Commercial Law Association.
Paul is also part of Houthoff’s multidisciplinary team, with experts in corporate governance and regulatory and corporate litigation, carrying out governance stress tests to improve and reinforce governance practices. Read more about the governance stress test.
Paul is a member of Houthoff's Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
Qualifications & Experience
- Ph.D. Company Law (University of Groningen)
- LL.M. Notarial Law (University of Groningen)
- LL.M. Dutch Law (University of Groningen)
- English Legal Methods Summer School (University of Cambridge)
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Advised Vauban Infrastructure Partners on the acquisition of Boreal Holding AS, a leading public transport provider in Norway, from Everbright Overseas Infrastructure Investment Fund.
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Advised European private equity firm CastikCapital on the acquisition of TBAuctions, a leading European online auction platform.
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Advised Van Oord Renewable Finance B.V. on the sale and transfer of its (approx.) 10% stake in Blauwwind Management II B.V. and Blauwwind Management II C.V. to a fund advised by Luxcara.
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Advised Ease2pay N.V. on the intended acquisition of Involtum Holding B.V. and capital raise.
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Advised Sportfondsen on the acquisition of Laco. The organisations are focused on managing and operating multifunctional sports, recreation and welfare facilities.
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Advised CSC on the conditional agreement of a recommended public offer for all shares of Intertrust for EUR 20 (cum dividend) in cash per share.
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Advised European Healthcare Acquisition & Growth Company B.V. (EHC), the first operators-led healthcare-focused acquisition and growth company in Europe, on successfully completing its EUR 200 million private placement and listing on Euronext Amsterdam.
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Advised the publicly traded software company Bentley Systems Inc. on the acquisition of Oxplus B.V.
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Advising Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, on its acquisition of Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity and Nasdaq listed, by means of a cash tender offer at approximately USD 2.4 billion.
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Advised Siemens with its acquisition of Sqills, a leading provider in the provision of cloud-based inventory management, reservation, and ticketing software to public transport operators around the world. The agreed purchase price is EUR 550 million plus an earn out.
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Advised Fortenova Group on the divestment of its Frozen Food Business to Nomad Foods Limited for a consideration of EUR 615m.
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Advised Black Diamond Capital Management, LLC in connection with the acquisition, jointly with InvestIndustrial, of the Phenolic Specialty Resins division and European forest products resins division from Hexion Inc.
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Advised Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. II, a NYSE-listed special purpose acquisition company, on the merger agreement with Wallbox and Wallbox's listing as a Dutch N.V. on NYSE through the merger.
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Advised B&C Industrieholding GmbH, together with CERHA HEMPEL, on the acquisition of 80% stake in the Schur Flexibles Group, which has an enterprise value of around EUR 900m and four production sites in the Netherlands.
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Advised Siemens with its acquisition of TimeSeries, a leading Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and Mendix partner.
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Advised Exact on the acquisition of Gripp, provider of SaaS business software for professional service companies.
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Advised Fortenova Group on the acquisition of 18.53% of the shares in Mercator, a large retail group based in Slovenia.
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Advised, together with Goodwin Procter LLP, Qell Acquisition Corp., a publicly listed special purpose acquisition company (Nasdaq: QELL) in connection with the intention to list Lilium as a Dutch N.V. on Nasdaq through a business combination with Qell.
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Advised L Catterton on the acquisition of a majority stake in the BIRKENSTOCK Group. Houthoff worked jointly with Kirkland & Ellis on this transaction.
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Advised felyx, an innovative scale-up with ambitious plans for the roll-out of their shared scooter system in Europe by raising new capital from De Hoge Dennen Capital and Anne-Marie Rakhorst.
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Advised Timex Group and its shareholders on the acquisition of a majority interest by The Baupost Group. The existing shareholders of Timex Group retain a substantial interest in the business. Timex Group manufactures and distributes watches under brands as Guess, Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, Furla and Ted Baker.
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Advised Vermeer Corporation on its acquisition of the electric-powered horizontal directional drilling (HDD) and fluid systems technology from Normag.
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Advised Siemens with its acquisition of Culgi. Culgi provides expertise and develops software solutions for multiscale chemistry simulation, from quantum chemistry to molecular dynamics.
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Advised Castik Capital S.à r.l., a Luxembourg-based private equity firm, on its acquisition of a majority stake in Customs Support Group (CSG).
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Assisted Trustbridge Partners with a USD 200 million follow-on investment in WeWork China.
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Assisted the Salvation Army in setting up the investment fund 'Stichting Leger des Heils WoonVermogen' for construction projects that make a social impact. The 'Stichting Leger des Heils WoonVermogen' is funded by private investors and aims to build 250 residences for vulnerable people in the coming years.
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Advised together with Renzenbrink & Partner, the svt Group, a leading supplier of passive fire protection products and systems with the acquisition of Flamepro. The svt Group is an Ergon Capital portfolio company.
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Advised Doughty Hanson on the sale of Zobele Group to Knowlton Development Corporation. Zobele Group is a world leader in the business segments of Air Care and Pest Control and a global player in Health & Personal Care and Fabric & Laundry Care.
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Advised OLA Electric on the acquisition of electric scooter company Etergo B.V.
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Advised Siemens Nederland with the divestment of its Gas and Power business to Siemens Energy, in preparation of the announced spin-off and listing of Siemens Energy.
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Advised Redefine Properties Limited (listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange) and European Logistics Investment B.V. (ELI) on the sale of 46.5% of the shares in ELI to Madison International Realty and 2% of the shares in ELI to Griffin Real Estate. Houthoff worked in close collaboration with Rymarz Zdort (formerly Weil, Gotshal & Manges) on this matter.
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Advised together with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Telia Company in connection with the divestment of its holding in Moldcell to CG Global.
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Advised Stryker Corporation on its USD 5.4 billion acquisition of Wright Medical Group N.V.
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Advised GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, on the joint venture agreement with Equinix for more than USD 1 billion to develop and operate hyperscale data centres in Europe. The joint venture will acquire two operational data centres in London and Paris and plans to futher develop data centres in Amsterdam, Frankfurt (two sites) and London. Houthoff was co-counsel to Kirkland & Ellis on this transaction.
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Advised, together with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Tele2 AB in connection with the exit from its joint venture with Kazakhtelecom. The net proceeds to Tele2, after deducting the existing earn-out liability, will be USD 169 million.
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Advised Hearst with the purchase of The History Channel Iberia from its A+E Networks joint-venture partner Disney. The History Channel Iberia operates Historia, Blaze and Crimen+Investigación, which are distributed in Spain, Portugal, Angola and Mozambique.
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Acted as Dutch counsel in connection with the preparation and implementation of the settlement plan relating to the Agrokor group. Agrokor entered into an insolvency process in 2017 under 'Lex Agrokor', a law passed in Croatia aimed at the restructuring of Agrokor in view of its systemic importance for the Croatian economy. The business has been transferred to the Fortenova Group.
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Advised Latour Capital and Bpifrance (Banque publique d’investissement), together with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, in connection with their consortium acquisition of Plastic Omnium Environment BV, the environment division of Plastic Omnium. The purchase price amounts to €220 million.
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Advised Telia Company, together with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, in connection with the divestment of its holding in Kcell and the dissolution of its Fintur partnership with Turkcell. Telia Company and Fintur Holdings B.V., which is jointly owned by Telia Company and Turkcell, have agreed to sell their 75% stake in the leading Kazakhstani telecommunications operator Kcell JSC to the telecom operator Kazakhtelecom JSC for USD 446 million. Telia Company has also signed an agreement to acquire Turkcell's 41.45% stake in Fintur, which will make it Fintur's sole shareholder.
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Advised Siemens to found a joint venture with Mitsui Rail Capital Europe (MRCE) for the servicing and maintenance of locomotives. The company will be headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and be named Locomotive Workshop Rotterdam (LWR). The location of the new workshop in the port of Rotterdam will enable rail operators to optimize their long-term planning of necessary service stops for locomotives on their routes.
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Advised together with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Telia Company in connection with the divestment of its holding in Azertel. Fintur Holdings B.V., jointly owned by Telia Company and Turkcell, has agreed to sell its 51.3% holding in Azertel, sole shareholder of the Azeri telecommunications operator Azercell, to Azintelecom, a company wholly owned by the Republic of Azerbaijan. The agreed price for Fintur’s 51.3 percent in Azertel is EUR 222 million.
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Advised together with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Telia Company in connection with the divestment of its holding in Geocell. Fintur Holdings B.V., jointly owned by Telia Company and Turkcell, has agreed to sell 100 percent of its holding in Geocell LLC, to the Georgian telecommunications company JSC Silknet, Georgia’s largest fixed network operator, for a transaction price of USD 153 million.
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Advised Intel Corporation on its tender offer to acquire Mobileye N.V., which has its headquarters and main operations in Israel. Mobileye N.V. is incorporated under Dutch law and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (MBLY.N). The tender offer was announced on 13 March 2017 and valued Mobileye at USD 15.3 billion.
Publications
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29-April-2021
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21-July-2020
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15-May-2020
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24-April-2020
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16-April-2020
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20-March-2020
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11-March-2020
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06-February-2020
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22-November-2019
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22-October-2019
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15-March-2019
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04-August-2018
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09-July-2018
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24-October-2017
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27-September-2017
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27-September-2016
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10-December-2015
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26-May-2015
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26-September-2014
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15-April-2014
