Jan Bureš

Czechoslovak Group said Friday that it has raised €3.8 billion ($4.5 billion) in its initial public offering in the largest European IPO since 2022. The Prague-based defense company floated more than 15% of its shares on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange. The IPO values Czechoslovak Group, or CSG NV, at €25 billion. Clifford Chance LLP acted as the legal adviser to CSG on the IPO, with a team led by partners Christopher Roe, Han Teerink, and Jill Concannon. Prague managing partner Miloš Felgr, Amsterdam-based counsel Serkan Özel, as well as senior associates Anjaneya Das, Vladimír Rýlich, and Garo Yaghsezian were also on the team. Michal Strnad, chairman and majority owner of CSG, said the "listing is a testament to the hard work, dedication and ingenuity of our people, and to the trust our customers and partners place in us." Strnad added that the listing will "expand our global reach and deliver on our mission to be a critical long-term supplier of advanced defense and industrial solutions to NATO states and government partners worldwide." The IPO comprised a primary sale of €750 million of new shares, a secondary of existing stock totaling €2.55 billion sold by existing shareholder CSG FIN AS. There was also an over-allotment option representing a maximum amount of approximately €496 million. Leading global institutional investors took part in the float, with commitments totaling €900 million from Artisan Partners, affiliates of BlackRock Inc., and Qatar's Al Rayan Holding LLC. CSG is a major seller of ammunition and provides other services to the military sector. It operates companies in Czechia, Germany, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, India, the U.K., and the U.S. Other members of the Clifford Chance team included partner Floris van de Bult, counsel Astrid van Ommeren, senior adviser Sara Schermerhorn, and senior associate Veronika Kinclová. Associates Roef Hofman, Geoffrey Adonu, and Robert Bulte and junior lawyers Ondřej Šteco, Barbora Fiřtíková, Merel van den Burg, Dávid Herich, and Abe van 't Hek, as well as trainee solicitor Daniel McCurley were also in the team. Partners Michiel Sunderman, Nicola Hemsley, and Avrohom Gelber also worked on the deal. They were assisted by counsel Petr Šebesta, senior associate Paul Harrington, associates Sharon Yu and Alec Sanderson, as well as junior lawyer Diederik de Kruijff.

Jan 23

2 min

Clifford Chance advises ARICOMA Group on the acquisition of Seavus Clifford Chance advised ARICOMA Group, which is part of KKCG Group, on the acquisition of the technology company Seavus. With this acquisition, ARICOMA Group penetrates further markets in Europe and strengthens its position in the USA. At the same time, it becomes an international player in the IT services industry, with consolidated revenues of EUR 300 million. Seavus is a software development and consulting company with a proven track-record in providing successful enterprise-wide business solutions. The company has over 800 IT experts worldwide and offers a variety of products and service options, successfully covering the European and US market from several offices in the world. ARICOMA Group is part of the KKCG Group and the largest Information and Communications Technology (ICT) holding in the Czech Republic. It provides a wide range of services, starting with the design of ICT architecture, through infrastructure and cloud services and the implementation of corporate applications, up to the development of its owncomprehensive software solutions and outsourcing. Clifford Chance has a long history working with KKCG Group, which continues to flourish and Michal Jašek, Clifford Chance M&A Counsel comments: "After the acquisitions of the AUTOCONT group in 2017 and the Cleverlance group in 2019, we are very proud that we could have now assisted KKCG with this latest and this time multi-jurisdictional acquisition of the Seavus group. We coordinated work of colleagues in other Clifford Chance offices and external counsel offices in more than 10 jurisdictions." The transaction team was led by M&A Counsel Michal Jašek who was assisted by Associates Jakub Veselý and Tomáš Procházka and Junior Lawyer Martin Urban. Finance team was led by Partner Miloš Felgr who was assisted by Senior Associate Dominik Vojta and Junior Lawyer Matěj Řídký. David Koláček, Partner and Co-Head of the Corporate practice supervised the Clifford Chance team. The Prague team was further assisted by colleagues from Amsterdam and New York offices of Clifford Chance.

Dec 8

1 min