CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre advises lenders in connection with the Arche Acquisition of Laforêt

CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre acted as counsel for the Arche acquisition of Laforêt.

Arche, the holding company for Citya (the third largest French player in asset management), has recently acquired the Laforêt franchised real estate agencies. Financing of the deal was guaranteed by a banking pool led by Arkéa Banque Entreprises & Institutionnels. The financing included an acquisition loan agreed for Arche and a refinancing loan agreed for Laforêt Franchise.

To date the Citya Immobilier real estate group based in Tours has 150 local agencies and 2,900 employees throughout France, with revenues of EUR 245 million in 2016.

For its part, Laforêt has 700 agencies, 3,000 employees, manages 30,000 properties, with 40,000 instructions for sale and rental on its books and carries out some 30,000 property transactions a year.
The CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre team advising the lenders consisted of Benjamin Guilleminot, counsel and Benoît Fournier, associate.

The purchaser was advised by FTPA (Bruno Robin and Coralie Oger, partners), and the seller by André Farache.