Eversheds LLP : sorts Aurelius’ acquisition of Office Depot’s European business

Eversheds has supported Aurelius Equity Opportunities (Aurelius), a leading pan-European mid-market investor, on its acquisition of the European business of Office Depot, a US-based provider of office equipment and contract services. The acquisition completed over the new year holiday period.

The Aurelius Group now has 23 consolidated subsidiaries generating annualised consolidated revenues of around EUR 4.5bn. With €2bn of sales, Office Depot Europe represents Aurelius' largest acquisition by revenue to date. The company employs around 6,500 staff and operates in 14 countries across three core divisions: Viking, a multi-channel provider of office supplies, furniture and document services; the contract services branch, which boasts a customer base of more than 100,000 large corporate clients; and the retail division, which sells own-branded products.

Aurelius aims to work alongside the management team to revitalise the business by further developing the product and service offerings, strengthening the distribution and logistics network and expanding the e-commerce platform.

The transaction was led by Eversheds corporate partner James Trevis and corporate principal associate, Richard Kyle. The team also included UK based IP partner, Simon Crossley. Advice from the Netherlands came from corporate partner, Tom Van Wijingaarden, finance partner, Matthijs Bolkenstein and corporate associate, Youssef Rasnabe.

James Trevis commented: 'We were delighted to support Aurelius on such a significant and strategically important transaction.'

Kimberley Whitaker, Legal Counsel at Aurelius, said: 'We were very glad to have had Eversheds on board. The team's multi-jurisdictional reach and experience, breadth of service and flexibility in supporting our in-house legal team on Aurelius' highest-revenue transaction to date were particularly helpful in completing this complex cross-border carve-out.'