CMS advises Holtzbrinck on merger of majority of Macmillan Science and Education with Springer Science+Business Media

On 15 January 2015, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (Holtzbrinck) announced that it and BC Partners (BCP) have reached an agreement to merge Springer Science+Business Media (owned by funds advised by BCP) in its entirety with the majority of Holtzbrinck-owned Macmillan Science and Education (MSE), namely Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan and the global businesses of Macmillan Education.

An international team of CMS led by Dr Thomas Meyding has comprehensively advised Holtzbrinck in connection with this transaction which is subject to approval by various competition authorities.

Upon completion of the transaction, the new group will be under joint control of Holtzbrinck and funds advised by BCP with Holtzbrinck retaining a 53% share. The joint venture will create a leading publishing group with approximately EUR 1.5 billion turnover and 13,000 employees.

Roman Tarlavski led the Dutch CMS team, which further comprised Christian Delgado, Abbas Ali Hyder, Priamo Boi, Paulus van den Bos, Fleur van Assendelft de Coningh, Simon Sanders, Hilde Haentjens, Barbara Veldmaat and Rogier de Vrey.

Aside CMS in Amsterdam, CMS offices in Zurich and London were involved, as well as Drinker Biddle & Reath (USA) en Khaitan & Co. (India).