Norton Rose Fulbright advises Société Générale on the financing of a triple acquisition by Excelya

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised multinational investment bank Société Générale on the financing of the acquisition of three companies by Excelya Group, a French contract research organisation (CRO) specialising in clinical trials.

Société Générale, acting as agent of a consortium of four French banks also comprising Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Crédit Lyonnais and HSBC France, arranged the financing for Excelya Group’s acquisition of three European CROs, Zein Biotec Limited (UK), The Clinical Company Holding BV (The Netherlands) and Koehler eClinical Gmbh (Germany).

This acquisition will allow the Excelya Group to expand its offering to 24 European countries.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team advising Société Générale and the other lenders was led by partner Christine Ezcutari, head of the banking and finance department in Paris and included counsel Alexandre Roth and associates Alexis Babin de Lignac and Constance Ollat.

The Paris office was also supported by Norton Rose Fulbright lawyers in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany. This included partners Geert-Jan van Rijthoven (Corporate M&A) and Wouter Hertzberger (Banking), counsel Joris Ravelli (Banking), senior associate Marjolein Pichel (Banking) and associate Tamara Ubink (Banking) in Amsterdam. London-based partner Matthew Thorn and associate Miriam Kaufmann advised in relation to banking and finance. Partner Timo Noftz and senior associate Michael Volks advised on banking and finance matters in Germany.