Autodistribution’s acquisition of the ACR group | CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre advises NextStage and other sellers

CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre advised NextStage and other sellers of 100% of ACR Holding’s capital and voting rights to Autodistribution. With annual sales of 70 million euros and 200 employees, ACR group is one of France’s leading multi-specialist distributors of automotive parts. ACR Group has a nation-wide logistics and services organisation, with a central distribution hub in Gennevilliers and eight regional hubs.

NextStage is an independent private equity firm and a pioneer and leader in growth capital investment in France. NextStage, whose speciality is growth investment in small and medium-sized “Champions”, has been supporting the ACR group’s development since June 2010, when it invested 8.2 million euros in a primary transaction.

Autodistribution, which is controlled by Towerbrook, is France’s leading independent distributor of car and truck parts, with annual sales of over 1.1 billion euros.

CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre’s Arnaud Hugot (partner) and Solenne Gilles advised NextStage regarding the legal aspects of this sale. Advice on tax issues was provided to seller Samuel Denos by Philippe Donneaud (partner) and to seller Jean Rousseau by Pierre Le Roux (partner) and Lionel Bogey.

The sellers other than NextStage were advised on legal issues by Matthieu Lochardet of the law firm Edge Avocats (advisor to Jean Rousseau), Véronique Lacarelle of Balthazar Partners (advisor to Alain Justine) and Jean-François Carré of Carré Avocats (advisor to Samuel Denos).

The financial advisors for this transaction were Hugues Archambault and Aurélien Guenot of Goetzpartners.

Autodistribution was advised on legal issues by Bredin Prat (Matthieu Pouchepadass, partner, Guillaume Tormo and Marine Blottiaux), on tax aspects by Bredin Prat (Pierre-Henri Durand) and by Landwell & Partners (Xavier Etienne and Jean-Philippe Brillet), on accounting and financial concerns by PricewaterhouseCoopers (Sabine Durand and Stéphane Moureaux), on synergy effects by Kepler (Pierre Rougier), and on competition law by the law firm Renaudier (Richard Renaudier and Karine Turbeaux).

For more information, please contact:

• Nicolas Merigeau, NewCap
  nmerigeau@newcap.fr
  +33 1 44 71 94 98
  
• CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre
  Florence Jouffroy, Marketing and Communication Director
  Laetitia Mostowski, External Communication Manager
  florence.jouffroy@cms-bfl.com, laetitia.mostowski@cms-bfl.com
  +33 1 47 38 40 32 / 40 74