Takeover of ANT Trust by SGG

June 05, 2012 2:55 PM

Dealmaker of the week on the website for lawyers “Mr.” is Harm Uittien, who assisted the Luxemburg trust company SGG on behalf of Van Doorne in the takeover of the Dutch ANT, fourth-largest in the Netherlands. The two parties together have a turnover of over € 80 million and over 500 employees.

Harm Uittien, dealmaker for Van Doorne: “With the joint publication of the press release by SGG and ANT, a takeover project that was interesting to us has been completed. In the spring of 2011, Van Doorne was approached by the Luxemburg company SGG through White & Case Brussels to advise on its takeover of IMFC. After a successful first collaboration, in the autumn of 2011 we were asked to assist SGG in its takeover of ANT as well. With this last pooling of resources, SGG, with the support of its major shareholder Cobepa, acquires a leading position in the constantly consolidating trust sector in the Benelux countries. SGG has taken over 100% of the shares in ANT. As the shares were held by approximately 200 shareholders before the transaction, this was not a sinecure. Because of this special shareholders structure, the transaction was structured as if it were a public offering, in which the managements of ANT and SGG collaborated intensively. SGG had not included a financing reservation for the bid. The constructive attitude of all those involved led to this bid ultimately being successful, and all shareholders offering their shares. The confidence in the new combination SGG-ANT is considerable and the ANT management will consequently remain actively involved in the SGG group. Given the fact that the major part of ANT’s activities are in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and the BES Islands, knowledge of applicable legislation governing trust companies in these countries was essential to the (timely) success of the bid. Our expertise in this field, as well as our constant collaboration with VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne, consequently proved to be an added value in this transaction. With the recent takeovers by SGG a new chapter has been added to the consolidation effort on the Dutch trust market. Given the constant interest of private equity in this market and the globalization of the trust sector, the book does not seem to be closed as yet, however.”

Advisors SGG Holdings SA: Van Doorne (Harm Uittien, Sjoerd Kamerbeek, Stefan van Rossum, Zafer Tosun, Daan ter Braak, Maarten Appels)
Advisors SGG Holdings SA: VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne (Laurien Dumas)

Advisors ANT Trust and Services NV: Allen & Overy (Thédoor Melchers, Gerbrand Visser)

(Source: Mr.)