ARGO LAW

Managing Partners: Bert Van Ingelghem

Number of partners: 10

Number of lawyers: 47

Languages: Dutch, English, French

Firm Overview:

Argo is a fully integrated transaction and advisory boutique offering transactional support including assistance on tax structuring and financing, as well as procedural support, with a team of 44 lawyers.

Since its establishment in 2013, Argo became very well reputed in the Belgian market for the in-depth knowledge of the private equity industry of its corporate team, as well their extensive experience in M&A (both public and private) and capital markets work (IPO, debt and equity offerings and public takeover bids). Argo’s tax team has a vast experience in assisting private equity and other investment funds in their structuring, regulatory matters and management investment schemes, next to general corporate tax advice and tax aspects of corporate transactions. With its banking and finance team, the firm brings, among others, extensive experience in debt finance transactions, asset-backed finance schemes, insolvency and financial regulatory work. Furthermore, Argo has a highly appreciated dispute resolution team, handling litigation and (international) arbitration cases primarily focused on financial law matters, corporate claims and commercial matters. The practice has special expertise representing clients in post-acquisition disputes and shareholder conflicts, insolvency litigation, contract disputes and private enforcement claims. Argo’s private clients practice advises on the optimal planning, structuring and management of their clients’ wealth, covering both domestic and cross-border matters.

Offering a one stop shop for investments, sales of enterprises, tax structuring, private wealth planning as well as litigation and arbitration, Argo’s offering is unique in the Belgian market.

Argo’s clients include private equity funds and managers, listed and privately held companies, financial institutions and private clients.

The firm’s style is pragmatic, down to earth and personal, bringing excelling service and value. Intellectual challenges, the ability to bring added value and fulfilling human connections are at Argo’s core.

Main Areas of Practice:

Corporate & M&A: 5 partners, 25 fee earners

Work Highlights:

• Lead counsel to longstanding private equity client Vendis Capital and management (including, CEO Robin List) on the sale of Sylphar International NV, to Karo Pharma, a Swedish healthcare company listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and backed by the leading European private equity fund EQT.
• Counsel to Grizzly Sports NV and Club Brugge NV on the sale of secondary shares and issuance of primary shares in Club Brugge NV to the US private equity group Orkila Capital with respect to its minority investment in Club Brugge NV.
• Counsel to DPG Media on the joint acquisition with Rossel of RTL Belgium in a competitive auction process, a strategic milestone acquisition in the Belgian media landscape.
• Counsel to long standing private equity client Waterland on the acquisition of a majority stake in Technics & Applications (T&A), a leading manufacturer of automatic pool covers in Europe established by Ludo Vervoort.

Key Clients: Waterland Private Equity, Vendis Capital, Fortino Capital, Sofindev, Vectis Private Equity, Bencis Capital Partners, Gimv, Telenet, Aedifica

Contact: Nico Goossens, Bert Van Ingelghem, Kris Verdoodt, Louis Hoet and Freya Jorens

Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Capital Markets: 5 partners, 25 fee earners

Work Highlights:

• Counsel to Quva NV on its acquisition of a majority stake in Resilux NV (Euronext Brussels: RES) from the De Cuyper family, followed by a mandatory public takeover bid on all other shares issued by Resilux and the subsequent envisaged delisting of the company from Euronext Brussels.
• Counsel to Lotus Bakeries and its family shareholders on a EUR 326.5 million private placement of existing shares through an accelerated bookbuild offering, with Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co Kg, KBC Securities NV and BNP Paribas Fortis SA/NV acting as joint global coordinators.
• Counsel to VGP NV on its EUR 300 million capital increase through an accelerated bookbuild offering with J.P. Morgan, KBC Securities, Belfius Bank and BNP Paribas Fortis acting as underwriters.
• Argo advised VGP NV on its inaugural EUR 600 million green bond issuance and subsequent EUR 1 billion green bond issuance with J.P. Morgan, KBC Securities, Belfius Bank and BNP Paribas Fortis acting as joint bookrunners. The green bonds are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (Euro MTF).

Key Clients: VGP, Lotus Bakeries, Quva, Euronav

Contact: Nico Goossens, Bert Van Ingelghem, Kris Verdoodt, Louis Hoet and Freya Jorens

Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Banking & Finance: 1 partner, 6 fee earners

• Counsel to the banking syndicate coordinated by KBC Bank (with i.a. ING, BNP, Rabobank and Belfius) with respect to four full restatements to increase the acquisition facilities in respect of the Asteria group (a Waterland private equity portfolio company), for multiple add-ons in i.a. Germany, UK, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands (18 in 3 years), with Argo taking the lead in structuring the cross border security package.
• Project finance work for ATB Bank, in setting up the cross border factoring programme under a receivables purchase scheme.
• Financial regulatory work for asset managers and private equity houses with regulatory aspects related to the incorporation of new funds, including the KBC Private Clients Life Sciences fund.
• Assistance to various national and international financial service providers with regulatory aspects related to their activity in Belgium, a.o. CBOE Exchange Inc. and CBOE Futures Exchange LLC.

Key Clients: AlphaCredit, Alphabet, BNP Paribas Fortis, BMW Financial Services Belgium, Exmar, ING, KBC, Waterland PE

Contact: Pieter Bogaerts

Email: [email protected]

Fund Structuring: 2 partners, 9 fee earners

Work Highlights:

• Counsel to KBC Securities with the set-up and structuring of the new investment fund ‘KBC Private Partners Life Sciences’. KBC Private Partners Life Sciences is a fund of funds, having raised about EUR 60 million for investments in other investment funds with a focus on life sciences.
• Counsel to long standing client Hummingbird Ventures with the set-up and structuring of the new investment funds ‘Nomads’ and ‘Icons’. In aggregate, USD 300,000,000 was raised for both funds, whereby the Icons fund will function as a fund of funds, investing globally in the most renowned investment funds, and the Nomads fund will invest in, among others, solo GPs.
• Counsel to long standing client Vectis Private Equity with the set-up and structuring of their fourth private equity fund ‘Vectis Private Equity IV’. With this fund, Vectis Private Equity raised EUR 80 million for investment in SMEs.
• Counsel to AMAVI Capital with the set-up and structuring of the new investment fund ‘AMAVI Proptech Fund’, with an investment focus on real estate technology (‘proptech’). More than EUR 30 million was raised in the first closing of the fund.

Key Clients: Hummingbird Ventures, Down2Earth Capital, Heran HealthTech Fund I, Vectis Private Equity, Integra Fund, CIM Capital, LSP, Bioqube Factory Fund I, Truncus

Contact: Philippe Rens and Freya Jorens

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Tax: 2 partners, 8 fee earners

Work Highlights: confidential

Key Clients: Van Hool, argenx, Down2Earth Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, Niko, Oxurion

Contact: Philippe Rens

Email: [email protected]

Dispute Resolution: 2 partners, 1 counsel, 4 fee earners

Work Highlights: confidential

Key Clients: Buy-Out Fund, DPG Media, NHV Holding, Waterland Private Equity

Contact: Nico Goossens and Emilie Ooms

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Private Clients: 1 partner, 3 fee earners

Work Highlights:

• Assisting a Belgian family (net worth exceeding EUR 2 billion) in the corporate restructuring of their holding companies controlling a Belgian listed company, including the set-up of a Dutch foundation to organise the majority shareholders’ position, with a subsequent tax-free transfer to the next generation.
• Representation of several members of a Belgian family (net worth exceeding EUR 400 million) in a complex inheritance dispute procedure.
• Assisting a Belgian captain of industry (net worth exceeding EUR 500 million) with the tax and legal structuring of his family wealth, including the acquisition of foreign and domestic real estate investments and the set-up of a family office and a charitable fund.

Key Clients: confidential

Contact: Hannes Casier

Email: [email protected]