The largest merger in Danish history completed today
Thomas Holst Laursen, partner in Plesner's M&A team, led the team along with Gitte Holtsø, partner in Plesner's EU and Competition Law team, who has been responsible for the transaction being cleared by the competition authorities, including the European Commission. More than 90 individuals at Plesner have advised and collaborated with Novozymes to reach today's result when Novozymes and Chr. Hansen were successfully combined.
"It has been an extremely complex deal and a fantastic journey, especially because of the capable and dedicated Novozymes team. We are incredibly grateful to have been chosen for this task for Novozymes and we also thank all the other advisors for the collaboration. We send all our best wishes to Novonesis", says Thomas Holst Laursen.
The transaction was subject to various conditions, including clearance by the competition authorities in several countries, other regulatory approvals and general meeting approvals, and the completion takes place as a statutory merger with Novozymes as the continuing entity.
The combined companies will operate a global network of R&D and application centers as well as manufacturing sites and will employ around 10,000 talented and purpose-driven employees who are inspired by the power of biosolutions. Novonesis is projected to generate an annual revenue of approximately EUR 3.7 billion (around DKK 27.5 billion). The boards of directors of both companies supported the transaction, and Novo Holding, the largest shareholder in both Novozymes and Chr. Hansen, supported and voted in favour of the merger.
Plesner acted as lead counsel for Novozymes. Thomas Holst Laursen led Plesner's team on the merger which involved several of Plesner's practise areas such as M&A, EU- and Competition law, Banking and Finance, Corporate Law, IP Law, Tax Law, Technology & Outsourcing, Employment and Labour Law, etc.
The team on the merger included, among others, Gitte Holtsø, Micha Fritzen, Lars Bunch, Janus Jepsen, Peter Stassen, Kasper Frahm, Rie Paving Mortensen, Sture Rygaard, Søren Thyssen Valerius, Rasmus Mandøe Jensen, Peter Barsøe Østergaard, Nicolai Ørsted, Henrik Laursen, Tina Brøgger Sørensen, Michael Hur Bertelsen, Simon Västernäs, Lynge Daugaard Jensen, Simon Mejer, Maja Dahl-Jessen, Anne-Marie Rosman Nielsen, Lars Toft, Camilla Cuculiza, Marcus Franzpötter, Kristina Kristensen, Amalie August Madsen, Simon Nybo Holgersen, Cirkeline Christensen and Villam Vellev.