Linklaters is advising Japanese financial services firm ORIX Corporation on its €1.935bn acquisition of Dutch asset manager Robeco Groep N.V. from Rabobank. The deal is ORIX’s most significant strategic acquisition to date, as well as the largest Japanese outbound deal of the year to date.
ORIX is acquiring approximately 90.01% of the shares of Robeco for ¥240.2 billion (equivalent to approximately €1.935 billion). Part of this transaction is a strategic alliance between Rabobank and ORIX, including Rabobank retaining an equity stake of about 9.99% in Robeco, and continuing to cooperate in maintaining and expanding Robeco’s business platform. In addition to the purchase, ORIX will allocate treasury stock to Rabobank as part of the acquisition price. ORIX and Rabobank have also agreed that Robeco’s banking activities, which are only based in the Netherlands, will be transferred to Rabobank, with Robeco retaining its client service relations.
The Linklaters team, which involved lawyers from the firm’s Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, New York, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong offices, was led by corporate partners Hiroya Yamazaki in Tokyo and Pieter Riemer and David Holdsworth in Europe.
Pieter Riemer, Linklaters corporate partner in Amsterdam and Managing Partner for Europe, said:
“It is an honour to advise a client like ORIX on such a large and complex transaction, which capitalised on our broad international expertise. We are very proud to have been in Japan for over 25 years and, with the current trend for Japanese corporates looking to grow overseas, we are extremely well placed to help our Japanese clients on their investments abroad.”
