Bredin Prat is the go-to law firm for big-ticket, transactional work. The firm has continued to expand this year, hiring two associates. Two more are set to join in November bringing the numbers up to 15.Renaud Streichenberger heads the practice and ...
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Bredin Prat is the go-to law firm for big-ticket, transactional work. The firm has continued to expand this year, hiring two associates. Two more are set to join in November bringing the numbers up to 15.
Renaud Streichenberger heads the practice and is singled out by nearly all his peers. "He is quite simply the absolute best at what he does," said one partner. He specialises in M&A, corporate restructurings, financial instruments and tax litigation. The group also includes a number of up-and-coming partners who are seen as important for the future in the French tax market such as Pierre-Henri Durand and Sébastien de Monès.
Around two-thirds of the group's time is spent structuring transactions and negotiating and providing advice, and nearly all of its work has cross-border element to it. Clients cover a balance between traditional industries and financial services and include Saint Gobain, GDF Suez, Eurazeo, Credit Mutuel and Sonepar.
Last year Bredin Prat worked on several deals worth more than €1 billion ($1.4 billion). Durand and fellow partner Yves Rutschmann advised BPCE on the sale of the French real estate services group. The acquisition meant the unwinding of a number of different contractual agreements to do with the group structure of BPCE arising from a merger in 2009.
Julien Gayral advised Rhodia on the €3.4billion friendly takeover bid by Solvay, where he had to ensure was important to make sure that the tender offer did not jeopardise tax beneficiaries from the tax employee scheme. This was achieved by making sure the employees did not tender shares and instead were offered shares in the acquisition vehicle which they can then swap for cash later.
The group also advised Delachaux on the acquisition of a €1.1 billion stake in their business by the private equity group, CVC Capital Partners. This raised several issues various issues such as thin capitalisation, treatment of re-investment and tax treatment of future flows.
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