Arnaud Coibion

Arnaud specialises in private and public M&A, joint ventures and corporate law, as well as IPOs and equity offerings. He advises (listed and non-listed) corporates, private equity firms and banks on complex domestic and cross-border deals in Europe, America and Asia. He has experience of working on deals that have high levels of public, political and market scrutiny.

Arnaud is global co-head of the firm’s Energy & Utilities Group and has in-depth knowledge of these sectors.

Arnaud spent two periods of secondment to the firm’s London office (2002 and 2008/2009).

Work highlights

Arnaud has advised on a wide range of major corporate transactions. These include advising:

• Groupement Les Mousquetaires – Intermarché on its acquisition of supermarket group Mestdagh
• AKKA Technologies on its € 2bn business combination with the Adecco Group (including a mandatory takeover bid)
• Greiner AG on its acquisition of a reference shareholding in Recticel, followed by a non-solicited takeover bid
• ENGIE on the business combination the USD 1.4bn business combination between EVBox, a leading global provider of smart charging solutions for electric vehicles, and TPG Pace Beneficial Finance, a SPAC sponsored by TPG
• Elia, the Belgian electricity transmission system operator, on its strategic reorganisation aimed at ring-fencing its regulated activities in Belgium
• Ablynx on its defence against a hostile takeover bid and on its eventual EUR 3.9bn recommended takeover by Sanofi
• The Carlyle Group on its acquisition of Praesidiad, a leading perimeter security systems and security services provider
• Solvay on the financing (involving a combination of rights issue, issuance of bonds and hybrid instrument) of its merger with Cytec Industries, a U.S.-listed company
• SABMiller on its GBP 79bn merger with AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer
• Fluxys and Enagas, two natural gas transmission system operators on the disposal of Swedegas, the Swedish owner and operator of gas transmission grid
• ENGIE on its business combination with a International Power plc, UK-listed international energy group, forming the world’s largest independent power producer

Arnaud has written books, articles and papers on numerous subjects on company law and financial law. He is a lecturer on company law and M&A at the Louvain School of Management, the business school of the University of Louvain.

Arnaud studied law at the University of Namur and the University of Louvain and holds a master’s in law from the University of Cambridge (Darwin College).

He speaks English, French and Dutch.