CMS Cameron McKenna provides advice to Accor Services on Exit Group’s acquisition

The Prague office of CMS Cameron McKenna v.o.s. has advised Accor Services CZ s.r.o. on the acquisition of Exit Group, the fourth largest provider of meal vouchers on the Czech market.

The transaction was finalized at a total price of EUR 15 million, i.e. approximately CZK 381.5 million. Accor, a major global group and the European leader in hotels, as well as the global leader in services to corporate clients and public institutions, operates in nearly 100 countries with 150,000 employees. Accor Services Czech Republic's post-acquisition issue volume is estimated at EUR 250 million (CZK 6.36 billion). With this acquisition, Accor Services CZ will enhance its issue volume by more than 50 per cent and the number of companies using Accor Services’ services will almost double.

CMS Cameron McKenna’s team was led by Kveta Vojtova from the Prague office, an outstanding senior corporate lawyer and head of the consumer products sector group. Květa Vojtová commented upon the transaction: “This transaction was truly one of the most demanding corporate transactions of my practice, due to the large number, diversity and geographical location of the sellers and I am delighted that we were able to play a part in such an important acquisition and contribute to the success of the Accor Services team led by Bruno Berthier, managing director, and Virginie Delacour, head of the internal legal team.”

CMS Cameron McKenna has almost 20 years’ experience of working in the region and has over 450 lawyers based in Central and Eastern Europe. The firm’s CEE teams have been involved with prominent client organisations from banking, real estate and private equity sectors, and with many other international companies. In 2009 PLC Which Lawyer rated CMS Cameron McKenna among the top three law firms in the Czech Republic.

Recently the Prague team has advised many high-profile clients, including Unicredit Bank Austria, BNP Paribas, ING Bank and WestLB on the financing of the acquisition of UPC Slovenia by Mid Europa Partners from Liberty Global, Inc. This was the first leveraged buy-out transaction since the economical downturn of Q4 2008 -. In 2008 the firm advised on some key CEE deals, including the acquisition of the largest independent generic pharmaceutical producer in Romania.