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, has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in Chambers Global and is highly regarded in 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 also repeatedly has been recognized by Who’s Who Legal: Competition and was named a 2023 Global Elite Thought Leader by the publication. He also has been called a “deals guru” in the GCR100 and was recognized as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Litigators in 2023. In addition, Mr. Depoortere repeatedly has been 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:

• Adobe Inc. with the antitrust aspects of its proposed but terminated US$20 billion acquisition of Figma, Inc.
• Wolt Enterprises Oy in its £7 billion acquisition by DoorDash, Inc.
• DSV Panalpina A/S in its US$4.2 billion acquisition of the global integrated logistics business of Agility Public Warehousing Company K.S.C.P.
• DuPont in its US$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 US$523 million proposed, but later abandoned, acquisition of Transat A.T. Inc.
• Willis Towers Watson in its US$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 (US$565 million) acquisition of Silae
• Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada in its US$390 million acquisition of an 80% stake in InfraRed Capital Partners
• WeWork Companies LLC in its US$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 US$4.6 billion acquisition of The Panalpina Group
• Worldpay in its US$43 billion merger with FIS
• Rockwell Collins, Inc. in its US$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 US$6 billion, including assumed debt
• Red Hat, Inc. in its acquisition by IBM in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately US$34 billion
• ABB Ltd. in its US$2.6 billion acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions from General Electric Company
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in its initial US$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 US$24 billion acquisition of C. R. Bard, Inc.
• EMC Corporation in its acquisition by Dell Inc.
• Armstrong World Industries, Inc. in the US$330 million sale of its EMEA and Pacific Rim businesses to Knauf International GmbH
• Esterline Technologies Corporation in its US$4 billion acquisition by TransDigm Group Incorporated
• XL Group Ltd. in its US$15.3 billion acquisition by AXA SA
• Validus Holdings, Ltd. (Bermuda) in its US$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 Company
• Konecranes 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 Corporation in connection with:
  • its combination with Alcatel-Lucent
  • the sale of its devices and services business to Microsoft
• 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