Frederic Depoortere

During his career, Mr. Depoortere has been involved in some of the most high-profile and complex merger control cases, including for clients such as Arcelor S.A., BlackRock Inc., General Electric Company and Nokia Corporation. He also deals with general EU competition law and compliance issues relating to cartels, vertical restraints and dominance.

Mr. Depoortere is a graduate of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and completed part of his law studies in Ghent (Belgium) and Strasbourg (France). He holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Chicago Law School and is a member of the Brussels and New York bars.

Mr. Depoortere’s experience includes work on the following transactions:

• Rockwell Collins, Inc. in its US$30 billion acquisition by United Technologies Corporation;
• CME Group Inc. in its US$5.5 billion acquisition of NEX Group plc.;
• Red Hat, Inc. in its US$34 billion acquisition by International Business Machines Corporation;
• ABB Ltd in its US$2.6 billion acquisition of the industrial solutions business of General Electric Company;
• Becton, Dickinson and Company in its US$24 billion acquisition of C. R. Bard, Inc.;
• Armstrong World Industries, Inc. in the US$330 million sale of its EMEA and Pacific Rim businesses to Knauf International Gmbh.;
• Esterline Technologies Corporation in its US$4 billion acquisition by TransDigm Group Incorporated;
• Validus Holdings, Ltd. in its US$5.6 billion acquisition by American International Group, Inc.;
• XL Group Ltd. in its US$15.3 billion acquisition by AXA SA;
• Permira in various transactions, including:
  • the US$1.5 billion sale of Intelligrated, a company backed by the Permira funds, to Honeywell; and
  • the US$895 million sale of Ireland-based medical device-maker Creganna Medical, a company backed by the Permira funds, to TE Connectivity;
• EMC Corporation in its acquisition by Dell Inc.;
• E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in its merger-of-equals with The Dow Chemical Company;
• Konecranes Plc in connection with:
  • its acquisition of Terex Corporation’s material handling and port solutions unit; and
  • its proposed, but terminated, all-stock merger with Terex Corporation;
• CF Industries Holdings, Inc. in its proposed, but terminated, acquisition of the European, North American and global distribution businesses of OCI N.V.;
• General Electric Company in connection with:
  • its acquisition of the energy unit of Alstom SA; and
  • its proposed acquisition of the aviation business of Avio SpA;
• Merck KGaA in its acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation;
• Hospira, Inc. in its acquisition by Pfizer Inc.;
• Nokia Corporation in connection with:
  • its combination with Alcatel-Lucent; and
  • the sale of its devices and services business to Microsoft;
• Nokia Siemens Networks in its acquisition of the wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola, Inc.; and
• Outokumpu Oyj in its acquisition of the stainless steel business of Thyssen Krupp.

Mr. Depoortere repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business and has been named in Chambers Europe, in which clients describe him as “everything you would want in a lawyer: a very smart, hard-working, good advocate who is respected and liked in Brussels.” He was included in Global Competition Review’s list of the world’s leading 40 competition lawyers under the age of 40. Mr. Depoortere also repeatedly has been named a leading practitioner in his field by the International Comparative Legal Guide: Merger Control 2017, The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists and Who’s Who Legal: Competition.