Nikolaos G. Andronikos

Recent landmark transactions include advising:

• Toro in its private placement of approximately 47% of its common shares to Pani
• Castor Maritime Inc. in its spin-off of Toro Corp., including its tankers’ business, into a standalone, publicly traded company;
• Tessenderlo Group NV on the U.S. aspects of its exchange offer and squeeze out of Picanol NV
• Abertis on US aspects of its €16.5 billion takeover by ACS, Hochtief and Atlantia and related bids;

• APG, Arcus, Brookfield and PSP on the €3.6 billion acquisition of TDF (the largest independent communication tower business in France);
• Doğuş Group on its sale of the Greek, Croatian and the UAE marina businesses of D-Marin to funds managed by CVC Capital Partners;
• Elis on US aspects of its approximately $2.76 billion acquisition of Berendsen plc (shortlisted as Deal of the Year – M&A, IFLR European Awards);
• HELLENiQ ENERGY in its renewable subsidiary’s heads of terms agreement with RWE Renewables GmbH for their pending 50-50 partnership for the development of offshore wind farms in Greece;
• Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division on the DKK8 billion investment in DONG Energy (now Ørsted) as part of a DKK13 billion capital raise (Deal of the Year – M&A, IFLR European Awards) and on Dong Energy’s DKK 19.7 billion IPO (largest European IPO in that year and largest Danish IPO and Deal of the Year – Equity, IFLR European Awards) and on multiple other acquisition and exit transactions, including through the capital markets, often in the pharma, technology and consumer sectors;
• Coca-Cola HBC AG, a new Swiss holding company, on its €6.2 billion exchange offer for the shares of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling S.A., a Greek company, to list that business on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange with a parallel Athens Exchange listing (S&C was named a standout in the Financial Times’ Europe Innovative Lawyers Report (Corporate Law category) for advising on this matter); and in connection with its wholly-owned subsidiary Coca-Cola HBC Holdings BV’s pending agreements to acquire approximately 94.7% of Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Egypt S.A.E. from its major shareholders, a wholly-owned affiliate of The Coca-Cola Company and MAC Beverages Limited and certain of its affiliates for an agreed combined purchase price of US$427 million, subject to adjustments;
• the ad hoc committee of Towergate Insurance Group’s senior secured creditors in connection with their credit bid and subsequent £1.1 billion acquisition and financial restructuring through a pre-pack U.K. administration and parallel/alternative schemes of arrangement with junior secured creditors and related shareholder arrangements (Adviser of the Year, Institute for Turnaround); and
• TFI TAB Gida on negotiations with private equity investors and on its proposed IPO.

Earlier transaction highlights include advising:

• Allianz SE on its €9.8 billion acquisition of minority interests in AGF;
• Barclays on its strategies to improve its capital ratios after the financial crisis;
• Goldman Sachs as financial advisor to Gaz de France on its €44.64 billion merger with Suez (then the largest statutory merger and privatisation ever in France), now forming ENGIE, to Eurobank EFG in connection with the exchange offer for its shares by National Bank of Greece, S.A., and to National Bank of Greece, S.A. in connection with its disposals of Ethniki Asfalistiki and of Finansbank;
• France Telecom (now Orange) in the strengthening of its balance sheet and repositioning by representing the underwriters on its €15 billion rights issue (then the largest European rights issue ever) and the presenting bank on its €7 billion acquisition of the minority interests in Orange and by advising France Telecom on its €3.9 billion acquisition of the minority interests in Wanadoo, the ensuing €1.25 billion IPO of PagesJaunes (then the year’s largest IPO in France) and its subsequent private equity sale, and the acquisition of the minority interests in Equant by way of a synthetic merger (first of its kind in France);
• The project sponsors and the project in the $2.4 billion Ocensa crude oil pipeline in Colombia (then the year’s largest financing in Latin America);
• The project sponsors and the project in the development, financing and operation of the $1.2 billion OCP crude oil pipeline, including its concession and foreign investment arrangements (the first major infrastructure project financing completed in Ecuador);
• Rio Tinto on the over $3.5 billion divestment of its Alcan Global Packaging business in several separate transactions;
• Suez Environnement (now Suez) in its €8.3 billion partial spin-off from Suez in connection with its merger with Gaz de France (now ENGIE) and listing; and
• Thomson (now Technicolor) on its new group strategy including the Silverlake PIPE investment, and on one of the first electronics joint ventures in China, with TCL International Holdings, and its ultimate exit from that venture.

Nik’s privatization experience also includes, in addition to the DONG Energy transactions, representing the underwriters on the €6.35 billion IPO of EDF (then the largest IPO ever done in France); France Telecom and Thomson on a series of privatization transactions; and the underwriters in a series of privatization transactions of Hellenic Telecom (OTE).

On corporate governance matters, beyond extensive advice to a number of clients, Nik was involved in representing certain non-executive directors of NMC Health PLC in relation to its insolvency and related investigations and potential claims.