The S&C Paris office, first opened in 1927, is the oldest of the European offices. Today our Paris-based team of lawyers 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) and equity and debt capital markets. Its practice also includes a significant French tax practice. 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. The majority of the lawyers in the office, including four prominent French partners and a French senior counsel, practice French law. 

For information on financial services reform in France, visit S&C’s French Financial Services Reform Resource Center.

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 Whitehall Funds in the €440 million sale of 5 prestigious hotels in Paris and in Amsterdam to Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (2012)
• Represented CFAO in its sale of a 29,8% to Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) and subsequent bid to acquire CFAO’s remaining capital (€2.5 billion) (2012)
• Represented Groupe CGI in its $2.8 billion acquisition of Logica’s worldwide operations (2012)
• Represented Bolloré S.A. in the €915 million sale of its stake in Aegis plc to Dentsu Corp. (2012) 
• Represented Natixis in connection with the reorganization of Paris Orléans (2012)
• Represented Electricité de Strasbourg in its acquisition of Enerest, a subsidiary of GDS (2012)
• Represented EDF in its tender offer for shares of EDF Energies Nouvelles (2011)
• Represented Wendel in the sale of its 45.87 percent equity interest (€358.8 million) in Stallergenes (2010)
• Represented Allianz SE in its sale of Allianz Alternative Asset Management to Nexar Capital S.A.S. (2010)
• Represented Renault and Nissan in their strategic alliance with Daimler (2010)
• Represented Vallourec in its acquisition of Serimax (2010)
• Represented the financial advisers to Suez Environnement in its €647 million acquisition of additional shares of Aguas de Barcelona (Agbar), increasing its direct and indirect stake in Agbar (2010)
• 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 PartnerRe (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 adviser to Business Objects (France) in its $5.7 billion acquisition by Systeme Anwendungen Produkte (SAP) (Germany) in 2008
• Other groundbreaking transactions of prior years: 
  • Represented the financial adviser to NYSE Group Inc. (U.S.) in its $10.2 billion merger with Euronext N.V. (Luxembourg) in 2007
  • 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 Télécom 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)  

Restructuring

• Represented Baelen-Gaillard Industries in its offer to acquire the business and most of the employees of the distressed automotive supplier and manufacturer Heuliez (2010)
• 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 its $3 billion Rule 144A global debt offering (2013)
• Represented Council of Europe Development Bank in numerous debt offerings (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010)
• Represented Total in numerous SEC-registered bond offerings (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009)
• Represented EDF in numerous 144A bond offerings (2013, 2010, 2009)
• Represented the underwriters in Banque PSA’s Rule 144A debt offering (2011)
• Represented AXA in two AXA Global P&C offerings under its €1.5 billion insurance securitization program through the intermediary of Calypso Capital Limited, an Irish special purpose vehicle (2011, 2010)
• Represented the underwriters in the FSI/Edenred private placement (2010)
• Represented the underwriters in the €926 million initial public offering by CFAO (2009)
• Represented the underwriters in the €2 billion capital increase by AXA (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

Tax

See S&C’s French Tax Practice.

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