Frederic Depoortere

During his career, Mr. Depoortere has been involved in some of the most high-profile and complex merger control cases, including for clients such as Air Canada, Konecranes plc, Willis Towers Watson plc, NCR Corporation, Red Hat, Inc., Rockwell Collins, General Electric Company, Dupont, Merck and Nokia Corporation. He also deals with general EU competition law and compliance issues relating to cartels, vertical restraints and dominance.

Mr. Depoortere was named 2023 Lawyer of the Year for Competition/Antitrust Law in Brussels by Best Lawyers. He also was named Competition Lawyer of the Year by Benchmark Litigation’s Europe Awards in 2021 and selected as a Litigation Star for Belgium - Competition/Antitrust by the same publication. In addition, he has been ranked Band 1 for Competition: EU in Chambers Global and Chambers Europe, in which clients describe him as “everything you would want in a lawyer: a very smart, hard-working, good advocate who is respected and liked in Brussels.” Mr. Depoortere has also repeatedly been recognized by Who’s Who Legal: Competition and was named a Global Elite Thought Leader by the publication. He has also been called a “deals guru” in the GCR100 and recognized as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Litigators and 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers. In addition, Mr. Depoortere has been repeatedly named a leading practitioner in his field by The Legal 500 EMEA, International Comparative Legal Guide: Merger Control and The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists.

Mr. Depoortere’s experience includes work on the following transactions:

• Catalent, Inc. in its acquisition by Novo Holdings A/S at an enterprise value of $16.5 billion
• Mars, Incorporated in its pending $35.9 billion acquisition of Kellanova
• Nokia Corporation in its:
  • pending $2.3 billion acquisition of Infinera Corporation
  • combination with Alcatel-Lucent
  • sale of its devices and services business to Microsoft
• Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. in its pending $8.3 billion acquisition by The Boeing Company
• Trimble Inc. in the sale and contribution of its agriculture business to a joint venture with AGCO Corporation, and AGCO’s $2 billion acquisition of an 85% stake in the joint venture
• Adobe Inc. with the antitrust aspects of its proposed (but terminated) $20 billion acquisition of Figma, Inc.
• Wolt Enterprises Oy in its £7 billion acquisition by DoorDash, Inc.
• DSV Panalpina A/S in its $4.2 billion acquisition of the global integrated logistics business of Agility Public Warehousing Company K.S.C.P.
• DuPont in its $2.3 billion acquisition of Laird Performance Materials
• Agroberries (a company invested in by Continental Grain Company) in its investment in BerryWorld’s EMEA and Asia-Pacific businesses
• Air Canada in its $523 million proposed (but later abandoned) acquisition of Transat A.T. Inc.
• Willis Towers Watson in its $30 billion acquisition by Aon plc
• DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences Inc. in its merger with International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.
• Silver Lake Partners V, L.P. in its €500 million ($565 million) acquisition of Silae
• Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada in its $390 million acquisition of an 80% stake in InfraRed Capital Partners
• WeWork Companies LLC in its $4.4 billion investment from SoftBank Group and SoftBank Vision Fund
• ZeniMax Media Inc. in its acquisition by Microsoft
• DSV A/S, a Danish logistic group, in connection with its $4.6 billion acquisition of The Panalpina Group
• Worldpay in its $43 billion merger with FIS
• Rockwell Collins, Inc. in its $30 billion acquisition by United Technologies Corp.
• Hospira, Inc. in its acquisition by Pfizer Inc.
• CME Group Inc. in its acquisition of NEX Group plc for $6 billion, including assumed debt
• Red Hat, Inc. in its acquisition by IBM in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $34 billion
• ABB Ltd. in its $2.6 billion acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions from General Electric Company
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in its initial $1 billion acquisition of a 66.7% interest in Silversea Cruises and its subsequent acquisition of the remaining 33.3% interest in the company
• Becton, Dickinson and Company in its $24 billion acquisition of C. R. Bard, Inc.
• EMC Corporation in its acquisition by Dell Inc.
• Armstrong World Industries, Inc. in the $330 million sale of its EMEA and Pacific Rim businesses to Knauf International GmbH
• Esterline Technologies Corporation in its $4 billion acquisition by TransDigm Group Incorporated
• XL Group Ltd. in its $15.3 billion acquisition by AXA SA
• Validus Holdings, Ltd. (Bermuda) in its $5.6 billion acquisition by American International Group, Inc.
• E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in its merger of equals with The Dow Chemical CompanyKonecranes Plc in connection with the:
  • global antitrust aspects of its proposed (but terminated) merger with Cargotec Corporation
  • proposed acquisition of Terex Corporation’s material handling and port solutions unit
  • proposed (but terminated) all-stock merger with Terex Corporation
• CF Industries Holdings, Inc. in its proposed (but terminated) acquisition of the European, North American and global distribution businesses of OCI N.V.
• General Electric Company in connection with:
  • the global antitrust aspects of its acquisition of the energy unit of Alstom SA
  • its proposed acquisition of the aviation business of Avio SpA
• Merck KGaA in its acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation
• Nokia Siemens Networks in its acquisition of the wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola, Inc.
• Outokumpu Oyj in its acquisition of the stainless steel business of Thyssen Krupp