Michiel Visser is a partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group. Dual-qualified in England and New York, Michiel represents corporations, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, and commercial banks in public and private mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and investments in a broad range of industries. In addition, he regularly counsels clients on joint ventures, general corporate matters, and securities law.

Mr. Visser previously resided in the Paris and New York offices and in 2009-2010 was seconded for one year to the Qatar Investment Authority/Qatar Holding ("QIA"), where he worked on numerous transactions including QIA's €7 billion simultaneous investment in Volkswagen and Porsche, its purchase of Harrods, and its participation in the £1 billion recapitalisation of Songbird Estates, the majority owner of Canary Wharf Group, pursuant to which QIA became the largest shareholder of Songbird.

As outside counsel, he recently advised Qatar Holding on its purchase of US$2.719 billion of bonds issued by Banco Santander, the largest bank in Spain, that are exchangeable into 5% of the shares of Banco Santander (Brasil), one of the largest banks in Brazil.

Other recent matters include the representation of:

• Savoye, a division of French diversified industrial group Legris Industries, in its acquisition of Retrotech, a privately held engineering services firm based in New York State;
• Redington Turkey Holdings in the acquisition of a 49.4% stake in Arena Bilgisayar (Computer), a leading Turkish IT distribution company listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange;
• WellPoint, the leading US health-benefits company, in connection with the sale of its in-house pharmacy-benefit management business to Express Scripts through a stock and cash deal valued at US$4.675 billion;
• Cosan, Brazil's largest sugar and ethanol company, in connection with the purchase of ExxonMobil’s Brazilian fuel distribution service Essobras, for US$890 million;
• NYSE-listed shipping company Excel Maritime Carriers in connection with its US$2.45 billion merger with Nasdaq-listed Quintana Maritime, an international dry bulk shipper;
• Royal Ahold, the Amsterdam-headquartered international supermarket operator, in connection with its US$7.1 billion sale of US Foodservice to a private equity consortium of KKR and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice;
• Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners in connection with their acquisition of the ConvaTec business unit from Bristol-Myers Squibb for US$4.1 billion (the largest private equity transaction globally in 2008 and Dow Jones' Private Equity Analyst's "LBO Deal of the Year" for 2008);
• Board of Directors of Visa International Service Association and the Transition Governance Committee in its internal global restructuring in preparation for Visa's subsequent US$19.7 billion IPO;
• Barry Callebaut, the world's largest manufacturer of industrial chocolate, in connection with its divestiture of Brach's, a consumer confectionary business, to Farley's & Sathers;
• Novartis, the multinational pharmaceutical company, in connection with a commercial license arrangement and associate stock purchase entered into with a privately held vaccine-developing company;
• EchoStar Communications Corporation, the global provider of satellite operations and digital TV solutions on a series of strategic agreements with respect to its acquisition of certain satellite distribution rights;
• ABB Ltd, one of the world's leading power and automation technology companies, in the US$950 million sale of its Lummus global upstream petrochemical business to Chicago Bridge & Iron Co.;
• Royal Ahold in connection with the US$310 million sale of Tops Markets to Morgan Stanley Private Equity;
• Red Diamond Capital, an affiliate of Mitsubishi Corporation, in its acquisition of the automotive division of Avon Rubber; and
• the management team of pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott PLC in its US$3.1 billion acquisition by a consortium led by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

He holds law degrees from Harvard Law School, Oxford University and Leiden University.

Bars and Courts
New York State Bar
Solicitor of England and Wales

Education
LLM, Harvard Law School, 2004
MJur, Magdalen College, Oxford University, 2000
LLB, Leiden University, 1999

Languages
Dutch
English
German
French

Citizenship
Switzerland
Netherlands