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Hubert is a corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisition, joint ventures, corporate governance and group reorganisation.

He has more than 20 years of experience and specialises in public and private M&A, joint ventures, stock exchange law, capital market transactions, corporate governance and group reorganisations. He acts for French and international clients on a range of domestic and cross border matters. 

Accolades

  • Ranked in the "Top 40 CAC 40 lawyers" ("Top 40 des avocats du CAC 40") by the Forbes magazine (2022 and 2023)
  • Legal 500 EMEA – M&A ("Leading Individual") (2023)
  • Chambers Global and Chambers Europe – Corporate/M&A (2023)
  • IFLR1000 – M&A ("Highly Regarded") (2023)
  • Best Lawyers – Corporate Law and M&A in France (2023) 
  • Recognised as being among the World’s highest ranking M&A and Governance lawyers by Who’s Who Legal (WWL) 2023
  • Mentioned in the Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyers (2022)

Background

DEA in private law (Université Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne)

DEA in business law (Université Paris II – Panthéon Assas)

Master of Laws (Yale Law School)

He is registered with the Paris and New York bars

 

Experience & expertise

Selected matters

  • BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Euro-Information (a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, Crédit Mutuel Maine-Anjou - Basse Normandie and Crédit Mutuel Océan) on the creation of a joint venture for the purpose of mutualising their ATM networks, including assistance in negotiating the main contracts between the partners and the joint venture (services contract with the banks, IT platform implementation contract, dynamic currency conversion service contract, payment card scheme member representation agreement, third-party introduction agreement and LCB-FT outsourcing contract)

  • Maurel et Prom, a France-based oil extraction and production company listed on Euronext Paris, on its acquisition of Assala Energy for 668 million Euros

  • Capgemini on its acquisition of cloud and digital transformation specialist BTC Corporation in Japan

  • Safran, an international high-tech company specializing in propulsion systems and equipment for the aerospace, space and defense industries, in relation to the sale of Safran Cabin Catering to Hivest Capital, an independent French private equity firm

  • Lumibird, the European leader in laser technologies, on its acquisition of Prima Industrie's Italian subsidiary, Convergent Photonics, and the Convergent assets of Prima Industrie in the United States
  • advising Groupe BPCE on its strategic acquisition of Groupe Eurolocatique by BPCE Lease, specialist lease financing subsidiary of Groupe BPCE
  • OneWeb, a low earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite communications company, backed by the Bharti group, the UK Government, SoftBank and Hanwha Systems, in relation to its proposed combination with Eutelsat Communications, a listed French satellite and telecommunications company
  • Diageo, a global leader of beverage alcohol, on its agreement to sell 100% of Guinness Cameroon S.A., one of the most important brewers in Cameroon, to France's Castel Group for £389,000,000
  • Generali on its acquisition of La Médicale, Crédit Agricole Assurances' insurance subsidiary for healthcare professionals and on the purchase of the death coverage portfolio of Predica, life insurance company fully owned by Crédit Agricole Assurances, marketed and managed by La Médicale
  • BNP Paribas on its acquisition of Floa Bank (formerly Banque Casino), the consumer credit specialist of the Casino group and Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, and on its long term commercial partnership with Casino and Cdiscount
  • Korian, Europe's leading healthcare group dedicated to the elderly and fragile people, on the conclusion of a long-term real estate investment agreement with several BAE Systems Pension Funds, advised by Elevation, an asset manager specialized in healthcare real estate
  • Several shareholders of Suez in the context of the proposed takeover of Suez by Veolia
  • SK Holdings on its acquisition of Yposkesi (French leader in gene therapy).
  • Altran Technologies (a world leading provider of Engineering and R&D services listed on Euronext Paris) on the €4.8 billion takeover offer launched by Capgemini
  • BNP Paribas Personal Finance on the sale of its subsidiary CMS Vacances to AERTICKET, a European leader in the sale of plane tickets to professionals
  • Danone SA on its investment in Impact Water Nigeria
  • April (a French insurer listed on Euronext Paris), on the €900 million takeover offer launched by CVC Capital Partners
  • Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations on its investment in the joint-venture company created alongside Aéroports de Paris and SNCF Réseau for the construction and operation of the CDG-Express high speed train line between Roissy Charles De Gaulle Airport and Paris Gare de l'Est to be launched from 1st January 2024
  • Banque des Territoires (Caisse des dépôts et consignations) in the context of its investment alongside Groupama in Predica Energies Durables (PED), an investment company of Crédit Agricole Assurances, in relation to the legal due diligence of the two portfolios FEIH and FEIH2 which hold wind and solar projects jointly operated with Engie and representing a total capacity of 2 GW.
  • Danone on its acquisition of Michel et Augustin, on its acquisition of Fan Milk International, a leading manufacturer and distributor of frozen dairy products and juices operating in West Africa, and on its acquisition of some of Laiterie Trèfle's assets in Algeria
  • Futuren (an independent onshore wind producer of electricity  listed on Euronext Paris), on the takeover offer by EDF Energies Nouvelles, and on its subsequent delisting
  • ERAMET (a French miner listed on Euronext Paris) on its non-solicited takeover offer to acquire Australian listed company Mineral Deposits Limited
  • E Ink (a Taiwanese listed company specialised in the Electronic Shelf Labels and Retail Signage Displays activity) on its investment in the French Euronext listed company SES-imagotag through the subscription to a reserved share capital increase
  • CMA-CGM, an international container terminal operator, as member of a consortium with German and Russian investors, on the acquisition from the Greek State of a controlling (67%) stake in Thessaloniki Port Authority, the company operating the port of Thessaloniki and listed on the Athens stock exchange
  • UBS (France) on its acquisition of Banque Leonardo, an independent French bank focused on wealth management and investment banking, a large-scale reorganisation of the UBS group in France and the creation of an asset management joint-venture, which manages approximately 4.5 billion euros worth of assets, with La Maison
  • CBRE on its acquisition of Convergences Immobilières and its subsidiary Convergences Gestion
  • Shaanxi Ligeance Mineral Resources (Chinese aerospace and mining company) on its acquisition of Gardner Aerospace (aerospace parts manufacturer), in particular in relation to receiving the approval by the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance 
  • Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Solvay Participations Belgique, and Marubeni Europe plc on setting up a joint venture for the holding, financing and operation of European cogeneration plants operated at Solvay industrial sites, including an initial portfolio of four SPVs operating in France and Italy - European Power deal of the Year Award, IJGLobal Award 2016
  • Maurel & Prom (France-based oil extraction and production company listed on Euronext Paris) on the takeover offer by Pertamina (Indonesian state energy firm)
  • Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) on the French aspects of the acquisition by Lonza Group AG (Swiss chemistry group) of the leading biopharmaceutical company Capsugel S.A. for an amount of USD 5.5 billion 
  • Euler Hermes on its collaboration with Moody's to launch credit ratings services for European SMEs
  • Publicis Groupe on the structuring of its venture capital programme to invest in 90 start-ups in twelve months through convertible bonds
  • Maurel & Prom on its merger with MPI, both companies being listed on Euronext in Paris
  • The shareholders (Virgin, Carphone Warehouse and Financom) on the sale of 100% of Virgin Mobile France to SFR Numericable
  • Farallon Capital Management on the €1.25 billion acquisition by Powerhouse France of Financière SELEC, a company owning a portfolio of approximately 7,600 individual residential properties, from funds managed by LBO France and RREEF
  • Theolia (an independent onshore wind producer of electricity from onshore wind energy listed on Euronext Paris), on the takeover offer launched by Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 4
  • BNP Paribas on the acquisition of Fédéris Epargne Salariale
  • BNP Paribas on the sale of Cortal Consors Select to Groupe Primonial 

Equity capital markets

  • the airline easyJet on the launch of a capital increase with its shareholders for a total amount of about 1.2 billion pounds (about 1.4 billion euros)
  • Latécoère on the issue and admission to trading on Euronext Paris of new shares through a share capital increase in cash with maintenance of shareholders' preferential subscription rights amounting to €222.4 million in the framework of a conciliation process and for which Searchlight Capital Partners (majority shareholder) undertook to subscribe up to €193.4 million
  • BNP Paribas on the setting up of a contingent equity line for SCOR for € 200 million
  • Euler Hermes Group, on the buyback of approximatively 4.9% of its own shares under the private share placement to institutional investors via an accelerated bookbuilt offer launched by Allianz Vie of an 8.6% stake
  • Safran SA on the issuance of bonds convertible into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares (OCEANEs) for a nominal amount of approximately € 650 million
  • BNP Paribas on the setting up of a contingent equity line for COFACE for € 100 million
  • XPO Logistics on the delisting of its shares from Euronext London
  • Theolia on its € 60 million capital increase by issuance of shares with subscription warrants attached (ABSA)
  • Maurel & Prom on (i) the issue of net share settled bonds convertible into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares (ORNANE) for a nominal amount of approximately €253 million (after exercise in full of the over-allotment option) and (ii) the repurchase of the bonds convertible into and/or exchangeable for new or existing shares (OCEANE), completed off-market as part of a reverse book building process and continued on the market under the same terms

Corporate governance

  • several CAC 40 and SBF 120 companies in relation to their governance related matters such as compensation of executive officers and board members (remuneration and incentive plans), board of directors and committees (including board and committee composition and processes, board evaluation, succession and removal processes and policies and management and prevention of conflicts of interest), preparation of internal corporate governance codes of good conduct, registration documents, reports of the board, resolutions to be submitted to shareholders' meetings