October 09, 2020 15:15 
Leroy and Associates assisted the Rocher Group in purchasing Romanian and Czech luxury cosmetics retailers, SABON, during all stages of the transaction: legal due diligence, preparation and negotiation of procurement documents, obtaining regulatory authorizations, antitrust and closure.
“The SABON transaction was not our first M&A mandate for Groupe Rocher in Romania, our law firm being the one that advised this client on the acquisition of Cosmetique de France, in 2016. One of the great challenges we faced in the course of the final negotiations and in the closing stage of this transaction was represented by not one, not two, but four different jurisdictions: Romania, France, Israel and the Czech Republic! Moreover, all these procedures were performed in the first days of the COVID 19 blockade, in unprecedented and unpredictable circumstances” said Andreea Toma, Leroy Partner and Associates.
“ The COVID 19 pandemic has postponed or even cancelled deals that have not reached closing by the end of March 2020. The market has picked up in late June and the timeline and chances for these new deals to go through largely depend on the impact of the second wave of the pandemic. We are moderately optimistic about the perspectives of the M&A activity in Romania based also on the expectation that there will be new investments in the country linked to the EU plan for the economic recovery”, said Bruno Leroy, Founding Partner of Leroy and Associates.
