
Damien Simonot
European Counsel, Corporate
Damien Simonot’s practice focuses on general corporate advice and M&A.
Bio
Mr. Simonot’s recent work includes advising, amongst others:
- Adevinta ASA in its US$9.2 billion acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group from eBay Inc.;
- Airbnb, Inc. on its acquisitions of Germany-based fewoVista S.L. & Co. KG and Vacaleo GmbH;
- Black Diamond Capital Management, L.L.C., along with InvestIndustrial, in their US$425 million acquisition of the phenolic specialty resin, hexamine and European forest products resins businesses of Hexion Inc.;
- funds advised by Castik Capital in their acquisition of the ipan Group;
- Coty Inc. in its strategic partnership with KKR & Co. Inc., including the carveout sale of 60% of its professional beauty and retail hair businesses to KKR with an enterprise value of US$4.3 billion;
- Daimler AG in connection with various matters, including:
- the carve-out and disposals of Daimler dealerships throughout Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg;
- projects relating to the cooperation with Renault-Nissan-Alliance;
- various real estate disposals;
- the sale of its subsidiary Russ & Janot GmbH to Lei Shing Hong Limited; and · the sale of its subsidiary Taunus-Auto-Verkaufs GmbH to KBM Motorfahrzeuge GmbH & Co. KG;
- Dermalogica, Inc. in its acquisition by Unilever plc;
- Dürr AG, a major German industrial machinery group, in connection with various matters, including the:
- formation of the joint venture ADAMOS (ADAptive Manufacturing Open Solutions) with Software AG, DMG Mori, optical group Zeiss and ASM PT; and
- acquisition of the industrial environmental technology business of Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc.;
- Equistone Partners Europe GmbH in its sale of Hornschuch Group to Benecke-Kaliko AG;
- Hillenbrand, Inc., a holding company for a funeral products manufacturer and an industrial equipment supplier, in its definitive agreement to acquire Abel GmbH & Co. KG, a manufacturer of inter alia diaphragm pumps, and certain of its affiliates from Roper Technologies, Inc., a diversified technology company, for €95 million in cash;
- Hamburg Commercial Bank (f/k/a HSH Nordbank) in connection with its privatization and related matters, including the sale of a loan portfolio;
- IAC/InterActiveCorp in its acquisition of a majority shareholding in MyHammer Holding AG from Holtzbrinck Digital GmbH and the subsequent voluntary takeover;
- the shareholders of marbis GmbH (doing business as Nitrado) in the sale and rollover of all shares to funds managed by FLEX Capital Management GmbH;
- Nikkei Inc. in its acquisition of the Financial Times Group;
- Nokia Corporation in its US$16.6 billion combination with Alcatel-Lucent;
- The SCP Group in its €1.2 billion acquisition of the Real Group from METRO AG;
- the supervisory board of Stada Arzneimittel AG in its US$5.6 billion purchase by Bain Capital Private Equity, LP and Cinven Partners LLP; TA Associates and Summit Partners in the sale of the Bigpoint Group to Youzu Interactive Co. Ltd.;
- Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. in its US$800 million acquisition of Mercury (Cayman) Holdings, the holding company of Amoun Pharmaceutical Company S.A.E.;
- UniCredit S.p.A. and Pioneer Global Asset Management S.p.A. on the German aspects involved in obtaining the withdrawal of US$58 billion in RICO claims in connection with the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy estate; and
- WABCO Holdings Inc. in its US$7 billion acquisition by ZF Friedrichshafen AG.
Credentials
Education
- Second State Exam, Baden-Wurttemberg, 2013
- First State Exam, University of Konstanz, 2011
Admissions
- Munich
Damien Simonot
European Counsel, Corporate
damien.simonot@skadden.com