Mayer Brown in Paris has recruited two new partners into its corporate and securities practice as of 1st April. Arnaud Pérès makes the move from Davis Polk & Wardwell while Jean-François Louit comes from French independent Scotto & Associés. The two have worked together in the past in Davis Polk and previously in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where they handled corporate and M&A transactions, private equity deals and equity capital markets.
Pérès led teams on a number of high profile deals while at Davis Polk in 2014. Among them he advised Digicel Group on its acquisition of a submarine fiber network across the Caribbean from the Guadeloupe-based Loret Group and independent power producer ContourGlobal on its $180 million acquisition of the Vorotan Hydro Cascade hydroelectric power plants from the Republic of Armenia, which at the time marked the largest single US private investment in Armenia’s history and the first in Armenia’s energy sector.
On the equity capital markets side, Pérès also advised metals company Eramet on a of €400 million private placement and listing on Euronext Paris. He was also involved in numerous transactions advising banking groups on debt programmes and offerings, including Rule 144A/Regulation S issuances.
In one notable M&A deal, Louit was part of the team at Scotto & Associés that advised Babilou and its majority shareholders on the exit of Alpha investment fund and entrance into its capital by Belgian fund Cobepa and Société Générale Partenaires.
The two partners will join a core team of three Mayer Brown corporate partners: Xavier Jaspar, Guillaume Kuperfils and Erwan Heurtel.