Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has advised Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Fund X in the sale of its investment in Belron, a worldwide leader in vehicle glass repair and replacement, in a transaction valuing Belron at €21 billion. The two-part transaction included the sale of approximately 39% of the investment to affiliates of Hellman & Friedman, GIC, and BlackRock Private Equity Partners, and the sale of the remaining 61% to CD&R Value Building Partners I, L.P. (the “SPV”), a new special purpose vehicle formed to continue CD&R’s partnership with Belron. For more information, please see the company’s press release.
Operating in 41 countries across 6 continents through wholly owned and franchise operations, Belron is the world’s leading vehicle glass repair and replacement group, with around 27,000 employees who served 14.9 million customers in 2020.
The Debevoise team advising CD&R in the formation of the SPV was led by investment management partner Jason Auerbach and M&A international counsel Andrew Rearick and included investment management partners Jonathan Adler, Marc Ponchione, Rebecca Silberstein and Patricia Volhard, international counsel Jin-Hyuk Jang, associates Julia Ahn, Arthur Flynn, Ruth Fruchter, Michelle Guo, Paul Laszlo, Aaron McPherson and Jihyun Yoo, law clerks Kelly Donoghue, Nicola Hill and Shirley Li, corporate staff attorneys Akash Balaggan, Jonathan McCarron-Smith and David Swiedler, legal assistant Jiovanni Moore and senior corporate transaction managers Edwin Diaz, Aafiya Mohammed and James Titone, M&A associate Kirstie Yu and regulatory partner Andrew Levine, international counsel Erich Grosz and associate Jan Schoberwalter. Tax advice was provided by partners Matthew Saronson and Richard Ward, associates Martin Connor Jr., Sabrina Hsieh, Adam Namm and Erasmo Perez and law clerks Shanna Adler, John Nelson, Chiemeka Onwuanaegbule and David Simpser.
The Debevoise team advising CD&R Fund X in the sale of its investment in Belron was led by M&A partner E. Raman Bet-Mansour and included associates Dominic Blaxill and Jake Grandison and corporate trainee associate Yiran Ji, tax partner Matthew Saronson, associate Adam Namm and corporate staff attorney Sam Engutsamy, and with respect to Luxembourg law matters, investment management international counsel Christopher Dortschy and associate Mathieu Voos.