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 Red Hat, Inc., Rockwell Collins, General Electric Company, Dupont, Merck and Nokia Corporation. He also deals with general EU competition law and compliance issues relating to cartels, vertical restraints and dominance.

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

• DSV A/S, a Danish logistic group, in connection with its US$4.6 billion acquisition of The Panalpina Group;
• Worldpay in its $43 billion merger with FIS;
• Rockwell Collins, Inc. in its US$30 billion acquisition by United Technologies Corp.;
• Hospira, Inc. in its acquisition by Pfizer Inc.;
• CME Group Inc. in its acquisition of NEX Group plc for US$6 billion, including assumed debt;
• Red Hat, Inc. in its acquisition by IBM in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately US$34 billion;
• ABB Ltd. in its US$2.6 billion acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions from General Electric Company;
• Becton, Dickinson and Company in its US$24 billion acquisition of C. R. Bard, Inc.;
• EMC Corporation in its acquisition by Dell 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.;
• XL Group Ltd. in its US$15.3 billion acquisition by AXA SA;
• Validus Holdings, Ltd. (Bermuda) in its US$5.6 billion acquisition by American International Group, 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:
  • proposed acquisition of Terex Corporation’s material handling and port solutions unit; and
  • 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:
  • the global antitrust aspects of 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;
• 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 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 also referred to as a “deals guru” in the GCR100 2018 edition. Mr. Depoortere 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.