Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, on its intended acquisition of a majority stake in Vecos, a leading global provider of tech-enabled smart locker solutions with a focus on corporate offices, education and healthcare facilities. Vecos is headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and active globally.

Ardian has acquired the company from Dutch private equity investor Bencis and certain other selling shareholders, which supported the company since 2019. The management team will continue to lead the company and will invest alongside Ardian as part of the transaction. Read more about it here.

Clifford Chance has advised on all aspects of the transaction, including in relation to the acquisition financing.

The Clifford Chance team was led out of Amsterdam by Jeroen Thijssen and further consisted of Bart van Hattum, Femke Buijs, Isabella Risino, Martijn van Beusekom, Diana Rezai, Jasper Leistra (Corporate M&A), Stern Flik, Cile Arnoldy (Tax), Mark Jan Arends, Serkan Özel, Esmée Oldenkamp (Notary), Andrei Mikes, Tamlin Higgins, Laura Bredschneijder (Tech//Digital), Liesbeth Buiter, Ewoud de Vries, Liselotte Hommels (Energy & Infrastructure), Merle van den Berg, Najib Muslem (Employment), Wijnanda Rutten (Pensions) and Dilan Ata (Finance).

The German acquisition financing team was led by Simon Reitz and consisted of Philip Rosak and Peter Gierl, with assistance from Boudewijn Vermeer in Amsterdam.

Luciano Di Via, Antonio Mirabile, Eleonora Zappalorto in Rome and Fiorri Michael in Amsterdam advised on antitrust and Foreign Direct Investment aspects.