Damien Simonot

Damien Simonot’s practice focuses on general corporate advice and M&A.

His recent work includes advising:

• the supervisory board of Stada Arzneimittel AG on its US$5.6 billion purchase by Bain Capital Private Equity, LP and Cinven Partners LLP;
• Airbnb, Inc. on its acquisitions of Germany-based fewoVista S.L. & Co. KG and Vacaleo GmbH;
• Equistone Partners Europe GmbH in its sale of Hornschuch Group to Benecke-Kaliko AG;
• Hillenbrand, Inc. in its US$108 million acquisition of ABEL GmbH & Co. KG from Roper Technologies, Inc.;
• McDavid Inc. on the German aspects of its acquisition of Shock Doctor, Inc.;
• DENTSPLY International Inc. on the German aspects of its merger of equals with Sirona Dental Systems Inc. The combined company is valued at US$13.3 billion;
• Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. on the German aspects of its US$800 million acquisition of Mercury (Cayman) Holdings, the holding company of Amoun Pharmaceutical Company S.A.E.;
• Nokia Corporation on the German aspects of its US$16.6 billion combination with Alcatel-Lucent;
• Dermalogica, Inc. on the German aspects of its acquisition by Unilever plc;
• Daimler AG in connection with its disposal of Daimler leaderships throughout Germany, including dealerships in North Rhine-Westphalia, Swabia and Bavaria to national and international acquirers;
• 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;
• the supervisory board of UniCredit Bank AG on a compliance investigation in connection with certain securities and derivative transactions effected around dividend dates (so-called ‘cum/ex’ transactions);
• a bank in connection with an investigation into whether the bank inappropriately assisted private banking clients in evading their tax obligations through the maintenance of undisclosed accounts in Luxembourg;
• a major Israeli bank in connection with an investigation into whether the bank inappropriately assisted private banking clients in evading their German tax obligations through the maintenance of undisclosed accounts in Switzerland; and
• the management board of a German industrial company in connection with bribery allegations in China.