Astorg Sells M7 Group to CANAL+

May 29, 2019

Paris – Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that it has advised Astorg, one of the leading European private equity firms with over €8 billion of assets under management, and the other selling shareholders of M7 Group, in connection with the sale of 100% of their shares and voting rights in M7 Group to Groupe CANAL+, a subsidiary of the Vivendi group.

Based in Luxembourg and Amsterdam, M7 Group is one the major independent Pay-TV operators in Europe, with more than 3 million subscribers in Europe. M7 Group’ portfolio includes the following brands: CanalDigitaal and Online.nl in the Netherlands, Skylink in the Czech and Slovak Republics, TV Vlaanderen and TéléSAT in Belgium, AustriaSat and HD Austria in Austria and M7 Germany in Germany. All brands offer tailor-made TV packages, adapted to the local culture and language. M7 Group has also been providing internet and telephony services to its customers in the Netherlands and Belgium since 2011.

Paul Hastings’ team for this transaction was composed of partners Alexis Terray and Sébastien Crepy and associate Stanislas Offroy for corporate and contractual issues, associate Joséphine Fourquet for antitrust issues, and partner Allard de Waal and associate Thomas Pulcini for tax issues. Loyens & Loeff acted as the local legal advisor to Astorg and the other selling shareholders of M7 Group in Luxembourg and in the Netherlands.

Groupe CANAL+ was advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Ariel Harroch, Judith Raoul-Bardy, Sandra Bouchouareb, Adrien Levallois and Manon Top for corporate and contractual issues). In Frankfurt, corporate partner Dirk Oberbracht was assisted by Jan Schubert and Milena Volkmann. In Brussels, partner David Wood and Attila Borsos have been involved on antitrust issues. Stibbe acted as local advisor to Groupe CANAL+ in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, alongside with Kinstellar, Groupe CANAL+’s local advisor for Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, and Binder Grosswang for Austria.

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