Locations
A team from Fieldfisher's Paris office, led by partner Christopher Mesnooh, has advised New York-based private equity fund American Industrial Partners on its acquisition of the fasteners division of Anixter International Inc.
The deal was unusually complicated in that it was structured as an asset deal and required the creation of a local subsidiary in each of the 14 countries where the assets were being purchased, with capital being provided by equity and debt. A particularly delicate part of the operation was the fact that all of the employees related to the fasteners business were taken on by the acquirer.
The worldwide turnover of the fasteners business, which has been renamed Optimas OE Solution, was $938m in 2014, with operating profits of $39m.
The Fieldfisher team included Louis Leroy (corporate), Antoine Gabizon (Tax), Aline Heriveau (Tax), Maxence Deleplanque (corporate) and Elodie Mehala (Employment).
American Industrial Partners, formed in 1989, is a private equity firm focused on acquiring and improving North American industrial businesses. The firm's speciality is buying industrial businesses to drive growth, and it has completed over thirty transactions throughout the world, including in India, China, Brazil and across Asia and Latin America, as well as in France. It currently manages more than $1.1bn in equity capital.
Anixter Industries, trading on the NYSE, was founded in 1957 and currently has more than 8,000 employees around the world, with a turnover in excess of $6bn. With its headquarters located outside of Chicago, it is a leading global distributor and manufacturer of highly-engineered fasteners and C-Class components for customers in the heavy truck, power train, luxury automotive, agriculture, construction and recreational vehicles sectors.