After 4 years of supporting the consulting firm in engineering and industrial innovation, Omnes sells ABMI to House of HR supported by Bain Capital.

During its partnership with Omnes, ABMI’s target was to increase its activity by 50%, but above all has favored the transformation of its model which has contributed to multiplying by 3 its Ebitda margin to 12% in 2022.

At the same time, Omnes partially reinvests alongside Bain Capital in House of HR.

As a result, the group will form a set of 280 M€ in turnover for 3,200 employees.

Omnes (Frédéric Mimoun and Pauline Chetaille) was advised by LL Berg (Gaëlle Quillivic, Julien Carrascosa and Nicolas Pegou) and Cambon Partners (Guillaume Teboul, Jonathan Journo, Samuel Koubi and Côme Mulle).

Management was advised by Orsan (David Sebban and Thomas Meric) and Keels (Laurent Partouche and Pierre-Olivier Madelon).

The FCDE and BPI announce they have sold their stake in NES, of which they had been shareholders since 2016, to the SERMA Group. NES is a recognized as a pure player in cybersecurity. SERMA Group is one of the French independent leaders in expertise and consulting services in the fields of technology, electronic systems and information systems. With more than 1,000 engineers and technicians, the group is established on 12 sites in France and Germany and achieves a turnover of 100 M€.

On this occasion, the FCDE and BPI invested alongside Checkers Capital in the SERMA Group to support the project. The acquisition of NES complements the current SERMA Safety & Security offering – known as S3.

LL Berg (Julien Carrascosa and Gaëlle Quillivic) advised FCDE (Benoît Sellam and Réjean Guern) and BPI (François Picarle).

The NACE Schools, the leading European school group with 50 schools in 10 countries and 25,000 students on 3 continents, now recognised as one of the world leaders in bilingual and international education, has just concluded a strategic partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Nice Côte d’Azur, in order to accelerate the development of the International School of Nice (ISN).

This operation is part of a process aiming at expanding the group in this area and follows the partnership with EBICA, carried out a few months ago by NACE Schools (with the assistance of LL Berg).

NACE Schools (Gaspard Biberson and Jérôme Vain) and Providence Equity Partners (Dany Rammal and Sofian Lignier) were advised by LL Berg (Gaëlle Quillivic, Olivier Abergel and Houzefa Moula-Mamoudjy).

In the context of an LBO valued at around €1 billion , Ardian has taken a majority stake in DRT in order to allow the group to strengthen its independence and its leader position.

Founded in 1932, DRT is a world leader in the production of ingredients derived from plant chemistry. At this time, the company generates € 500 million in sales (of which 80 internationally) and employs 1 300 people.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel et Gaëlle Quillivic) have been involved as advisers fouding, who sold and reinvested part of their stake in the LBO.

The Galaxy investment fund, supported in particular by Caisse des Dépôts and its European counterparts, has just created, under the leadership of Philippe Mangeard (director of Ubifrance and the transport manufacturer Modalhor) an investment fund dedicated to infrastructure transport.

The creation of this Private Equity fund was strongly encouraged during the Grenelle de l’Environnement.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel) advised the management on the structuring of this fund.

Colisée, supported by Eurazeo, acquires Bien à la Maison, the French leader in home care for Seniors with an integrated network of 50 branches and 3,000 employees.

Colisée is a reference operator in the global care the elderly and the dependency. Its network includes 76 nursing homes in France, Italy and Spain, and nearly 70 home care agencies in France. In these two branches of activity, Colisée employs more than 6,200 employees.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Gaëlle Quillivic, Nathalie Jacquart and Olivier Legrand) advised BALM shareholders on the transactional and tax aspects.

Paul Hastings (Guillaume Kellner, Claudia Wagner and Antoine Ricol) advised Colisée.

TVH Consulting, leader in the development and integration of ERP solutions, welcomes Pragma Capital as the new majority shareholder alongside the management team through a Management Buy Out transaction.

TVH Consulting has an international network in some 30 countries, and works for customers in the life sciences (Pierre Fabre, Laboratoires Aguettant, Laboratoires Septodont), the agri-food industry and cooperatives (Fleury Michon, Florette, Acolyance, Cap Seine), retail or omni-channel distribution (Saint Maclou, RAJA, Société des Bains de Mer).The arrival of Pragma Capital as a majority shareholder will enable this leader in the development and integration of major ERP solutions to carry out its external growth projects in France and abroad.

LL Berg (Grine Lahreche, Nathalie Jacquart, Christophe Bornes and Bengu Sulusoglu) intervened on the transactional and tax aspects on behalf of the majority shareholder and the Management.

Marvell (Jean-Louis Lasseri, Anne Ducros and Anna Lasseri) advised Pragma Capital.

Antin Infrastructure Partners announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a majority stake in Almaviva Santé, the fifth-largest private hospital group in France.

Almaviva Santé is a private health group created in 2007 by its CEO Bruno Marie. Thanks to an external growth strategy focused on the development of regional clusters of medical excellence, Almaviva has over the past 10 years become a group comprising of 30 private clinics with a strong local presence in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region – where it is the leading private hospital group – and in the Ile-de-France region surrounding Paris, two particularly dynamic regions.

Almaviva stands out in many surgical fields, particularly in orthopedics, ophthalmology, cardiology and urology. The company manages 2,700 beds and available spaces, 190 operating and examination rooms, and employs 3,300 staff and 1,100 private practitioners. Almaviva expects to generate revenues above €300 million in 2017.

LL Berg advised the Management in this transaction.

The service provider in Cybersecurity continues its growth in the Keensight Capital portfolio, up 34% through an OBO transaction.

Since its creation, I-Tracing has a 40% average annual growth, especially 45% for the last year. With its new shareholder, I-Tracing is on a five-year business plan track to reach € 70 million in 2022. The workforce would thus count 350 engineers versus one hundred today.

LL Berg advised Keensight on this legal and tax transaction.

FCDE (400 M€ under management) and BPI took a minority stake in NES Group, pure player of the cyber security.

NES Group is currently one of the main independant French player of cyber security sector. Organized around two entities, NES Group is a global player in the chain offering innovative, full and complementary services as well as integration and engineered solutions of security.

LL Berg (Gaëlle Quillivic, Julien Carrascosa, Pauline Borczuch) have been involved in transactional and financing aspects on behalf of the majority shareholders.

CGR Legal (Philippe Raybaud) advised FCDE.

Mon Véto, the leading French network of Veterinary clinics, has finalized the raising of a Unitranche Facility of €105 million, as well as an unconfirmed additional line of €100 million, with Barings in order to support its buy and build strategy.

Created in 2010, Mon Véto will operate 160 clinics in 2022.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Gaëlle Quillivic, Leslie Batazzi, Loïc Chomet and Emma Spitz) advised the group on Corporate & Financing aspects.

Deloitte Corporate Finance (Stéphane Villard and Olivier Magnin) acted as investment bank.

Keels Avocats (Laurent Partouche, Adélie Louvigné and Victoria Dellavalle) intervened on the Tax aspects.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher (Paul Lombard and Shiraz Kmar Turki) advised Barings.

Groupe Rayonnance has control of its entire mobility value chain and can provide assistance for a specific issue as well as throughout all phases of a project, from the custom design of mobile applications to the supply of hardware and associated services. The company makes its own middleware platform, Harmonie, available to customers for their mobile device management.

Its executives are increasing their equity ownership, while maintaining their close partnership with the Econocom group, which is remaining invested in the company.

With the support of Apax Partners Development, the group will pursue and accelerate its organic growth by seizing market opportunities for mobility and omnichannel solutions, while expanding its range of products and services through targeted acquisitions.

LL Berg and Eurvad acted as Advisors of the Management.

Hogan Lovells advised Apax.

Parella, a leading corporate real estate advisory and Design & Build fit-out specialist, announces the forthcoming acquisition by Qualium Investissement alongside managers and employees. This partnership will enable Parella to accelerate its growth in France and abroad and consolidate its status as a key player in the commercial real estate consulting exclusively dedicated to tenants and other end users of real estate.
Authorized by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), Qualium Investissement manages capital for third-party investors in France and other countries. Specializing mainly in majority control buyouts, it invests primarily in French medium-sized companies. Since its creation in 1998, Qualium Investissement has raised nearly €2 billion in funds provided by its sponsor the Caisse des Dépôts and over 40 French and foreign third-party subscribers.
LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Julien Carrascosa and Yohan Jabbour-Gédéon) and Cambon Partners (Guillaume Teboul) advised Parella shareholders.
Mayer Brown (Guillaume Kuperfils, Hadrien Schlumberger) advised Qualium.

Trèves TSC takes its independence after 60 years in family groups, the automotive supplier Trèves and the group Chomarat, specialized in technical textiles.

Trèves TSC, which specializes in the production of automotive textiles and seating equipment, employs around 2,200 people and is expected to achieve a turnover of € 180 million in 2016. The company wants to keep pace with its growth, particularly internationally by implanting in North America.

LL Berg (Grine Lahreche, Christophe Bornes, Bengu Sulusoglu) accompanied the TSC Management of TSC during this operation.

Jeausserand Audouard (Tristan Audouard) also advised Management.

Hogan Lovells (Xavier Doumen, Mathieu Frick) advised the consortium.

Ardian announces the signing of a deal to acquire a majority stake in Grand Frais the quality fresh food retailer.

Denis Dumont, founder, will reinvest alongside Ardian, as well its management team.

The group, which today operates over 185 stores and has a turnover exceeding one billion euros, has established itself as France’s preferred specialised food retailer (OC&C study, 2016).

Nathalie Jacquart, Head of LL Berg Tax department, advised the founder in this LBO.

DLA Piper, Ayache Salama and IXA were also involved in this transaction.

Founded in 1995, ACE is one of the leaders in the French brokerage market with 3.1 billion loans concluded in 2016, for 300 employees. The group will be integrated into Compagnie Européenne de Crédit, a credit brokerage business unit of Financière CEP created in 2015, gathering Ceprima, Empruntis and Immoprêt. Last year, the brand distributed 6 billon of credits via a multi-brand network composed of 200 outlets.

As a result of the merger, Compagnie Européenne de Crédit ranks first of the credit brokers in France.

The transaction has been processed by Raphaël Financial Advisory (Benoît O’Mahony).

LL Berg and Delaby Dorison advised the transferors (the founder and Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners).

Freshfields and De Pardieu Brocas advised CEP Financial.

Omnes Capital, has conducted the spin-off of the Geoxia Group’s brands in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region owned by LBO France, via a primary LBO.

InCa is one of the regional leaders in the construction of built-to-order single-design detached homes, with three strong brands.

The national underlying-end market for the construction of built-to-order single-design detached homes is structurally supported by the need for housing. Through a natural and strong consolidation, it is experiencing a significant rebound, boosted locally by the opening of the new TGV line linking Paris and Bordeaux in two hours from the start of July.

The aim of this transaction is to support the Group’s growth in three key areas: organic growth with the opening of new agencies in Aquitaine, an active and selective acquisitions policy and a commercial system reinforced by the development of innovative digital solutions.

After the acquisition of Hôpital Privé d’Ambérieu, C2S, owned by Bridgepoint since 2011, is developing its business in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region by taking over four clinics of Avenir Santé.  

C2S, a corporate group dedicated to the private hospitalization sector which was holding eight facilities with a total business turnover of 120 M€ in 2015, anticipates a turnover of 170 M€ for the next year (with 2,000 employees).

LL Berg (Grine Lahreche and Christophe Bornes) advised the Management team.

Smile, European leader and expert of the integration of Open Source solutions, acquires, with the support of its financial investors Keensight Capital and Edrip, the group Open Wide.

The new entity will have more than 1.000 employees and a turn over in the range of 70 M€ spread across 9 countries and 18 agencies, allowing to the new group to position itself as the only player « One stop shop » of Open Source in Europe.

Smile was advised by LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Gaëlle Quillivic, Julien Carrascosa and Olivier Legrand).

Assignors was advised by Dechert (François Hellot and Magali Stuber).

Telenco, a leading French player in passive telecom equipment for fiber optic networks, announces having entered into partnership with the pan-European investment firm Ergon Capital Partners (1 billion under management) regarding its investment in the Group alongside the founders/managers, to further accelerate Telenco’s growth in France and internationally.
Founded in 1999 and located near Grenoble, Telenco is a leading player in the manufacturing and distribution of passive telecommunication and technician equipment principally used in the deployment of fiber optic networks. The deployment of such next generation networks has experienced significant growth throughout the world in recent years.
The Group has a worldwide presence, selling its products in over 50 countries and realizing €120 million of turnover.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Gaëlle Quillivic, Julien Carrascosa, Houzefa Moula Mamoudjy and Joséphine Combret) advised Founders and Management on this Buy-Out.
Deloitte Corporate Finance (Stéphane Villard and Nicolas Vergnaud) acted as M&A advisors.
De Pardieu Brocas (Cédric Chanas, Anne Febvre and Mathieu Retiveau) advised Ergon Capital.

In the context of an LBO, Dzeta has taken a minority stake in Protectim in order to allow the group to strengthen its independence and its leader position.

Protectim is a leading company dedicated to security (110M€ of turnover and 4500 employees).

LL Berg and Cambon Partners acted as founder advisors.

Jeantet represented Dzeta.

IK Investment Partners entered into exclusive negotiations with Equistone Partners Europe to take majority control of Mademoiselle Desserts.

Founded in 1984, Mademoiselle Desserts, European leader in industrial bakery, has developed thanks to external acquisitions in the United-Kingdom and in the Netherlands.

The company now generates € 350 million and employs 1.500 people at 9 production sites.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel and Gaëlle Quillivic) advised the Management of Mademoiselle Desserts.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP (Eduardo Fernandez) represented IK Investment Partners and Goodwin (Thomas Maitrejean) represented Equistone Partners Europe.

Delaby & Dorison Avocats (Emmanuel Delaby) advised the Management on the tax aspects.

The publisher of backup and file sharing solutions, employing 350 people spread over France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Germany raises 65 million euros from Tikehau Capital, Matignon Investissement and Nextstage.
This transaction is the largest fundraising for an unlisted French software publisher. The purpose is both to finance the exit of Keensight Capital and the development of the group.
The company was advised by LL Berg (corporate: Grine Lahreche and Christophe Bornes, taxation: Nathalie Jacquart) and DC Advisory. Paul Hastings advised the investor.

Intervening for a hundred years in intellectual property consulting, Coralis Harle & Phelip is getting closer to the Italian group Jacobacci & Partners.

Coralis Harle & Phelip is deployed at four sites (Paris, Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon) and earns 30% of its revenues from groups of the CAC 40. Thus expanding its European network, Jacobacci & Partners was founded in 1872 and now has eleven offices and totaled € 60 million in sales in 2015.

Sellers advisors: LL Berg (Grine Lahreche, Christopher Bornes, Anne Pelletier)

Financial advisors : CM-CIC SME Transactions (Franck Monnot)

Tax advisors : Jeausserand Audouard (Jérémie Jeausserand, Tristan Audouard and Carole Furst)

Purchaser advisors : Altana (Jean Nicolas Soret)

The group specialized in the post-mortem solutions, held by the Dutch De Facultatieve for ten years, is bought by its management team. To do so, the management team relies on Abénex, which takes a majority share, to accompany it in a new stage of development of its activities in France and internationally.

Hygeco is a group of 340 employees, which generates almost two-thirds of its € 31m in revenue in France in 2016. Hygeco also has a few locations in Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy : a presence in Europe that the new management now wants to strengthen.

LL Berg (Grine Lahreche, Nathalie Jacquart, Christophe Bornes and Bengu Sulusoglu) advised on the transactional and tax aspects on behalf of the Management.

VVG (Frédéric Grillier and Frédérick Wlodkowski) advised Abénex.

Volt (Alexandre Tron and Anaïs Borel) advised the banks involved in the financing of the operation.

Previously owned by its founders ProDirect Experience sells 60% of its capital and comes under the control of Dzeta Group.

Founded 30 years ago, the marketing and communication agency dedicated to customer relations employs 400 people through its 3 branches (Marseille, Paris and Toulouse).

Currently established in the banking, insurance and real estate sectors ProDirect Experience wants to develop in the automotive or tourism market.

LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Julien Carrascosa) advised the Management of ProDirect Expérience.

Cohen & Gresser (Muriel Goldberg-Darmon) advised Dzeta Group.

Cambon & Partners (Guillaume Teboul) was the financial advisor.

Mecadaq Group becomes a stronger reference partner in the high precision manufacturing for the aerospace industry market and extends his expertise and his customer portfolio by acquiring RBDH Marignier, a corporate group dedicated to the precision gear manufacturing.

This transaction was entirely sponsored by a funding line set up throughout the LBO operation in December 2015 led by Activa Capital with Mecadaq Group’s management team.

LL Berg (Grine Lahreche and Christophe Bornes) advised Mecadaq Group.

Ardian, the independent private investment company, announces the sale of its minority stake in Novarc, a specialist in electrical safety equipment and maintenance products for the automotive sector, to Bpifrance and its financial partners. The transaction is subject to the approval of competition authorities.

The group now has 14 production sites. Novarc has experienced strong organic and external growth. These changes have helped Novarc’s turnover increase from €78 million in 2011 to €115 million expected in 2015.

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$50bn managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia.

Ardian (Arnaud Dufer and Alexis Lavaillote) was advised by LL Berg (Olivier Abergel, Gaëlle Quillivic and Olivier Legrand).