BDGS Associés

Firm overview: BDGS Associés is one of France’s leading independent law firms which handles its clients’ most strategic and complex matters, across all areas of mergers and acquisitions and company law, competition law and regulatory, tax law, dispute resolution, restructuring and insolvency and finance.

BDGS Associés was founded in 2013 by four prominent actors in French business law, Antoine Bonnasse, Youssef Djehane, Antoine Gosset-Grainville and Jean-Emmanuel Skovron, and today the firm has around fifty lawyers.

BDGS Associés offers a tailor-made service delivered by the partners themselves who work in small and highly responsive teams and who benefit from a deep understanding of the French economic and regulatory environment.

BDGS Associés regularly represents its clients in their international transactions and disputes, benefiting from the skills of its lawyers, several of whom are bicultural, multilingual and/or dual qualified and the strong personal relationships of its partners with leading law firms in key foreign jurisdictions, allowing the firm to work alongside the most suitable correspondents based on clients’ needs.

Main areas of practice

• Mergers and acquisitions and corporate law
• Competition and regulatory
• Tax
• Dispute resolution
• Restructuring and insolvency
• Finance

Mergers and acquisitions and corporate law: BDGS Associés’s mergers and acquisitions and corporate law practice, headed by founders Antoine Bonnasse, Youssef Djehane and Jean-Emmanuel Skovron, together with Marc Loy, Thomas Méli, Lucile Gaillard, François Baylion, Jérôme du Chazaud and David Andreani is a leader on the Paris market.

Our highly experienced and qualified team of lawyers represents French and international clients in their most strategic domestic and cross-border transactions, including acquisitions, mergers, public offers, private equity, corporate reorganisations, corporate governance, joint ventures and partnerships.

The practice notably has unique experience with regards to transactions involving listed companies, State-owned entities or regulated companies and accompanies clients on all aspects of corporate law, governance and shareholder-relation matters, as well as on their financing and capital restructuring transactions.

Competition and regulatory: BDGS Associés’s competition and regulatory practice benefits from a unique position due to its dual presence in Paris and Brussels and the experience of its partners Antoine Gosset-Grainville, Maria Trabucchi, Jérôme Fabre and François Gordon in all competition law and regulatory matters, including merger control, antitrust, state aid, sectorial regulation, competition litigation, as well as distribution law and foreign investments.

The practice is particularly renowned for its work in complex merger control and foreign investments with a strong risk of prohibition or remedies and in State aid.

BDGS Associés’s competition and regulatory practice also has significant experience in sectorial regulation both nationally and at EU level, notably in the telecommunications, energy, transport and broadcasting sectors.

Tax: BDGS Associés’s tax practice provides advice on all aspects of French and international tax law relating to mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganisations for both industrial groups and private equity funds, including LBOs, tax structures and management packages.

The tax practice also provides standalone tax advice regarding real estate activities (including listed real estate companies or REITs) and to high net worth individuals and also regularly represents clients in tax litigation.

Dispute resolution: BDGS Associés’s dispute resolution practice handles a wide range of complex disputes. Our team of litigators assists companies and executives during pre-litigation stages and also in their most strategic litigation before the French civil, commercial, criminal and European courts and arbitration tribunals, as well as in investigations and administrative proceedings.

The dispute resolution practice is best known for corporate and listed company related disputes (M&A and shareholder litigation), commercial litigation, pre-action discovery measures and white-collar criminal proceedings.

Restructuring and insolvency: BDGS Associés restructuring and insolvency practice is led by partner Henri Cazala, who has extensive experience of acting in high profile restructuring cases.

The practice advises distressed companies, their boards, their shareholders, their creditors or industrial or financial investors in respect of out-of-court debt restructurings (mandat ad hoc, conciliation) and insolvency proceedings (sauvegarde, redressement judiciaire or liquidation judiciaire).

The practice is particularly renowned for its work in complex financial or industrial restructurings, including cross-border restructurings and related disputes, which require high-level legal and financial technical skills.

The team also assists clients in their mergers and acquisitions or financing transactions with distressed company law components. The team is composed of lawyers who have invaluable experience and can provide clients with the perspective and insight required to formulate creative solutions to best preserve their interests and maximize value.

Finance: BDGS Associés’s finance practice advises clients on a wide range of finance transactions and banking and bonds refinancing.

The team primarily assists companies (listed and unlisted), public entities and private equity funds as well as private debt funds on complex financing transactions in the context of domestic and cross-border corporate, M&A and leveraged and project financing transactions.

The team also advises distressed companies or their shareholders on restructuring transactions involving recapitalisations or debt conversions alongside the Restructuring and Insolvency practice in the context of out of court debt restructurings (mandat ad hoc or conciliation) or insolvency proceedings (sauvegarde et sauvegarde accélérée).