Hogan Lovells has expanded its private equity practice with the hire of Lars Benger in Dusseldorf. He will join the firm in May 2012.
Benger was previously Counsel in the private equity team of Clifford Chance in Frankfurt. He has experience in working on M&A transactions for large and mid-cap private equity houses, in particular on complex cross-border leveraged buy-outs and advising strategic investors.
Recent high profile private equity transactions on which Hogan Lovells’ has advised include advising Gores on its USD85 million acquisition of Mexx from Liz Claiborne; Kelso Place Asset Management LLP on its acquisition of the iconic global fashion brand Nicole Farhi alongside OpenGate Capital; the Founders and Management of Natural Products Worldwide on its sale to Inflexion Private Equity; Abcam on its USD170 million acquisition of Epitomics; the Hay family on the sale of its automotive group to Apax; Advent on the acquisition of a German subsidiary from GFKL AG, and in relation to its investment in Oxea; and GFKL AG on the sale of its Benelux leasing business to abcfinance.
Alan Greenough (pictured), Co-Head of Hogan Lovells private equity group, says: “Lars’ extensive experience of complex M&A transactions for high profile clients speaks for itself. He is a very welcome addition to our team."
Benger says: "Hogan Lovells offers an extremely attractive platform to further develop a high profile and top performing private equity practice, both in Germany and globally. I am very pleased to be joining the team here in Dusseldorf."
