Communiqué | 10/05/22 | 2 min. | Valéry Denoix de Saint Marc David Neuwirth Ludovic de Talancé Vincent Brenot Charles Maurel François Pochart Geoffroy Thill Alexandra Berg-Moussa Juliette Vachet Florence Chafiol Ariane Seyed-Movaghar Benjamin van Gaver Olivier Attias Alexandre Trovato Héloïse Jardel Nicolas Quoy Antoine Boullet Driss Tlemçani Laure Bonin Emmanuel Le Galloc'h Alexandre Bay
August Debouzy, and in particular its German Desk, advised the Swiss group Holcim, a major player in innovative and sustainable construction solutions, on the acquisition of 100% of the PRB group, the leading independent French company in its sector offering a wide range of high-performance products for the renovation and thermal insulation of buildings.
The completion of the acquisition was announced on May 9, 2022 and follows the green light given on April 13, 2022 by the French Competition Authority. An agreement to initiate the information/consultation procedure with the PRB Group's employee representative bodies was signed on December 22, 2021.
The PRB Group, whose turnover is forecast at 340 million Euros for 2022, employs more than 700 employees working in state-of-the-art facilities including its research and development center, its 5 production plants and its 26 logistics depots. PRB also relies on 1,300 distribution outlets.
The acquisition fits perfectly with Holcim's "Accelerating Green Growth" strategy, which aims at expanding its Solutions & Products business to represent 30% of the Group's net sales by 2025, through the penetration of the most attractive segments in the construction value chain, ranging from roofing to repair and renovation.
August Debouzy advised Holcim on the M&A aspects with a team composed of Valéry Denoix de Saint Marc (Partner), David Neuwirth (Senior Associate) and Ludovic de Talancé (Associate); Philippe Durand (Partner) and Alexandre Dumortier (Associate) on the employment law aspects; Renaud Christol (Partner) and Marc-Antoine Picquier (Associate) on the competition law aspects.
On the due diligence, the AD team was also composed of : Vincent Brenot (Partner) and Charles Maurel (Associate) on public and regulatory law aspects; François Pochard (Partner) and Geoffroy Thill (European Patent Attorney) on patent aspects; Alexandra Berg-Moussa (Partner), Nicolas Quoy (Counsel) and Antoine Boullet (Associate) on commercial contracts and IT aspects; Juliette Vachet (Associate) on corporate aspects; Florence Chafiol (Partner), Héloïse Jardel and Ariane Seyed-Movaghar (Associates) on the aspects of personal data protection and intellectual property; Laure Bonin (Partner), Emmanuel Le Galloc'h (Associate) and Driss Tlemcani (Associate) on financing; Benjamin van Gaver (Partner), Olivier Attias (Counsel), Alexandre Trovato (Associate) and Alexandre Bay (Associate) on litigation; Paul Raffournier (Associate) on employment law and Julien Wlodarczyk (Counsel) on real estate aspects.