Guillaume Vitrich
Biography
Overview
Guillaume Vitrich is a partner in the EMEA private equity team of our Global Mergers & Acquisitions practice.
He is a seasoned corporate lawyer active in all types of corporate transactions. Well known as a leading corporate practitioner on the French market, Guillaume's practice covers a wide range of both domestic and cross-border private equity, growth equity, venture capital and M&A transactions, including in a distressed or restructuring environment. Guillaume frequently advises private equity, growth equity and VC funds, founders and managers, family offices, industrial and services companies as well as family-controlled corporations in their transactions.
An innovative lawyer with an ability to lead pioneering work on behalf of his clients, Guillaume has developed a reputation for and a strong expertise in growth capital related matters, advising investors and growth companies on their funding rounds, restructuring, external growth transactions and their exit. He has a significant expertise in Tech sector and leads the White & Case Tech Fast Growth practice in Paris.
Guillaume has recently brought his expertise to Guides published by Tech think tank "The Galion Project" related to Board Strategy and Cross-border Tech M&A. He is a frequent speaker including at VivaTech, IPEM and Challenges Start Up Summit.
Guillaume was involved in the landmark tech/growth transactions in France and recently acted for clients including Goldman Sachs, Softbank, Carlyle, Eurazeo, Revaia, IdInvest*, Partech*, Moma Group, Geopost, Luko and Teads.
Guillaume joined the Firm in December 2018 from an international law firm in Paris.
Experience
Recent experience includes:
GeoPost (2023)
Representation of Geopost, a La Poste affiliate, in the sale of the Stuart group, a leading European delivery services provider, to private equity turnaround fund Mutares.
Luko (2023)
Representation of Demain ES, a French leading insurtech operating under the name "Luko", on its restructuring.
Moma Group (2023)
Representation of Moma group, France's leading independent hospitality and catering group, as well as its controlling shareholder, in connection with Butler Industries' acquisition of a minority stake in its capital.
Kadiska Group (2023)
Representation of the Kadiska group, a digital experience monitoring innovator, and its founders, on its sale to Netskope, a US-based global cybersecurity leader specializing in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).
Colonies (2023)
Representation of Colonies, a growth company providing co-living solutions, on its fundraising with Eurazeo, Credit Mutuel Impact and Allianz.
Carlyle Global Credit (2023)
Representation of Carlyle Global Credit, the credit arm of the global investment firm Carlyle, on a bond financing package of up to €500 million for Onepoint.
Eurazeo (2022)
Representation of Eurazeo, a French PE fund, as lead investor in the $210,000,000 Series D fundraising of Aiven, a Finnish software company.
Arianee (2022)
- Representation of Arianee, the leading platform for web3 solutions for brands, as well as its founders and two of its main shareholders, Bpifrance and ISAI, in connection with its $20 million Series A financing round.
- Representation of Edouard Caraco and Timothée Linyer (Founders of The Bradery), along with several other sellers, in their sale of 51% of the share capital and voting rights of The Bradery to Showroom Privé.
Luko (2022)
- Representation of Luko in its acquisition of Unkle, the French specialist of insurance unpaid rent.
- Representation of Luko in its cross-border acquisition of Coya AG, a german insur-tech company.
Revaia (2022 & 2023)
- Representation of Revaia and Digital+ in their investment in Platform.sh, a French tech company, specialized in cloud hosting to develop websites and web apps.
- Representation of Revaia on its minority investment in Mews, a Dutch innovative hospitality management cloud platform in its fundraising.
Tikehau Ace Capital Partners (2022)
Representation of Tikehau Ace Capital Partners, a private portofolio investment management company in connection with its investment, through its fund Brienne III, in Yogosha, through a share capital increase.
EPSA (2022)
Representation of EPSA, a performance optimization consulting firm, and its main shareholders on a joint minority investment from Towerbrook, Capza and Raise.
Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (2022)
Representation of Goldman Sachs Growth Equity as lead investor in a Series D fund raising into French robotics company Exotec.
Softbank (2021)
- Representation of Softbank in connection with its Series B round investment of U$500 million in exchange for a circa 17% stake in the capital of SORARE (with a pre-money valuation of U$3.4 billion).
- Representation of Softbank in connection with its Series E round investment of U$400 million in exchange for a circa 17% stake in the capital of Content Square (with a pre-money valuation of U$2.35 billion).
Goldman Sachs (2021)
- Representation of Goldman Sachs Growth in connection with its investment in Backmarket, alongside General Atlantic, Eurazeo Growth, Daphni, Financière Agache and Aglaé Ventures. It is a Series D investment with a total amount of $335 million.
- Representation of Goldman Sachs Growth as lead investor in connection with the US$170 million funding round of Younited Credit, French Next40 fintech specialised in credit and payments, alongside Bridgepoint, Eurazeo, Bpifrance and AG2R La Mondiale.
- Representation of Goldman Sachs and Eurazeo, as lead investors in Malt, on its €70 million series D fundraising. Other investors are Isaï and Serena (already shareholders of Malt).
Liberty Global (2021)
Representation of Liberty Global, one of the world's leading converged video, broadband and mobile communications companies, on the signing of an agreement with iliad for the sale of 100% of the share capital in Polish cable operator UPC Poland to iliad's Polish mobile subsidiary Play for an enterprise value of $1.8 billion.
Digital + Partners (2021)
Representation of Digital + Partners in connection with their Series B investment in CleverConnect, a digital solution provider assisting companies throughout talent acquisition process.
Revaia (ex Gaia Capital Partners) (2021)
Representation of Gaia capital Partners, a leading growth equity investor as part of its €30 million investment in the Series B of Planity, the French leader in beauty salon reservation.
Arianee (2021)
Representation of Arianee's founders and the company in connection with a fundraising process. Arianee is specialised in digital certification of valuable objects.
Skello (2021)
Representation of Skello as part of its €30 million Series B financing round with Partech.
Upflow (2021)
Representation of Upflow, as part of its financing round and selection with YCombinator, the world leading venture incubator.
Thinksurance (2021)
Representation of Thinksurance in connection with the creation of the first French subsidiary of the German InsurTech Thinksurance and implementation of the management incentive plan.
GoHenry (2020)
Representation of Gaia Capital Partners, a growth equity investment fund, in its participation to the $40 million fund raising of GoHenry, a provider of pre-paid debit card and corresponding app to minors.
Goldman Sachs (2020)
Representation of Goldman Sachs (through its West Street Capital VII Funds) as part of the partial divestment of its equity investment in Stan Holding SAS, the parent company of the Voodoo Group, the world leader publisher of mobile hyper casual games, and on the entry of Chinese conglomerate Tencent into Voodoo's capital.
Play Communications (2020)
Representation of Play Communications SA, the leading mobile network operator in Poland, and Kenboune Invest II SARL and Tollerton Investments Limited (affiliates of Novator Partners LLP and Olympia Group S.A., respectively) on the all cash tender offer by ILIAD SA, the French telecoms group, for all shares in Play.
Goldman Sachs (2020)
Representation of Goldman Sachs on its EUR 45M primary investment in BackMarket, a French e-commerce plateform company launched in 2014 and specialized in the sale of refurbished electronic goods, along with Eurazeo and Aglae Ventures as part of a Series C round financing of an aggregate amount of EUR 100M.
dSPACE (2020)
Representation of dSPACE on the acquisition of Intempora, a French software company providing real-time multisensor software solutions for autonomous driving from its founders.
Cobepa (2020)
Representation of Enodev, a Cobepa portfolio company, a leader in the wine and spirits closure solutions, in the acquisition of the Sparflex group, a leader in the creation of premium and ultra-premium packaging for champagnes, sparkling wines, wines and spirits.
Argus Media Ltd. (2020)
Representation of Argus Media Ltd. in the context of the acquisition of 100% of the share capital and voting rights of the French group Agritel.
KKR Credit Advisors (2020)
Representation of KKR Credit Advisors (UK) LLP in connection with the sale of Hilding Anders Bretagne SAS, a subsidiary of the Hilding Anders group, their portfolio company specialized in mattresses and beds.
Pernod Ricard (2020)
- Representation of Pernod Ricard México, S.A. de C.V., a Mexican subsidiary of Pernod-Ricard SA, a multinational company dedicated to the manufacturing, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages and spirits, on its acquisition and investment of 40% of the capital stock in Mezcal Ojo de Tigre;
- Representation of Pernod Ricard in connection with the creation of a joint-venture with Casa Lumbre.
Otium Capital (2019)
Representation of Otium Capital in connection with the acquisition of Birchbox France.
Zadig & Voltaire (2019)
Representation of Zadig & Voltaire in connection with the sale by TA Associates to Peninsula Holding of 30% of the share capital and voting rights.
NextStage AM and Mi3 (2019)
Representation of NextStage AM and Mi3 in their equity and debt investment in the Bagatelle Group.
Goldman Sachs (2018)*
Representation of Goldman Sachs' West Street Capital Partners VII fund on its $200 million investment in Voodoo. Founded in 2013, Voodoo develops, publishes and distributes mobile video games. This is the most important primary LBO achieved in France on an independent company.
Teads (2017-2019)
Representation of Teads S.A., the leading global online video advertising program with an audience of more than 1.2 billion unique visitors, including 720 million via mobile, on a number of transactions including;
- on the acquisition by Teads, of Buzzeff Holding S.A., a company incorporated in Luxembourg operating in the advertising sector, with a focus on online video advertising in Morroco and UAE; and
- advising the funders and historical investors of the video ad tech start-up Teads in its acquisition by Dutch telecom giant Altice*.
Named in Law.com's Rising Stars: Europe's Best-Up-And-Coming Private Equity Lawyers 2020
