Baker & McKenzie Advises on €8 Billion Veolia Transport - Transdev Merger
Deal Announcement
27 May 2010
Paris, 27 May 2010 - Baker & McKenzie advised Veolia Transport on its merger with Transdev, the urban transportation subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. The deal created the first worldwide public urban transportation group with an annual turnover of €8.3 billion and a major player in the French public transportation market.
Baker & McKenzie’s team in Paris was led by M&A partner Regis Fabre and included partners Bruno Bertrand, Alain Sauty de Chalon and David Haccoun. Also involved in this multi-jurisdictional transaction was M&A Partners Alberto Semeria (Milan), Barbara Deilmann (Dusseldorf), Gordon Low (London), Joeroen Hoekstra (Amsterdam) and Josep Balcells (Barcelona).
Additionally, the Firm advised Veolia on the agreements reached with the RATP for the sale of certain assets in connection with the merger.
Veolia/Transdev will operate in 28 countries and employ a workforce of 117,000. The merger combined the competencies of Transdev (urban transport) and Veolia Transport (inter-urban travel) in order to create a worldwide reference for sustainable transportation as well as harnessed the complementary geographical coverage of both groups. Transdev has a presence in the Netherlands, the UK, Italy and Portugal, while Veolia Transport operates in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Scandinavian countries.
Fifty percent of the group will be owned by Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations while the other 50 percent is allocated to Veolia. The RATP’s stake in Transdev, representing 25.6 percent, will be acquired through an exchange of French and international assets belonging to Transdev and Veolia Transport. Negotiations on the transaction began in July 2009 and were completed in early May 2010.