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Jacques Graas

Partner

Jacques advises on a wide range of domestic and cross-border public and private M&A, restructurings, IPOs and other strategic corporate transactions across all sectors.

His clients include private equity/real estate funds, financial institutions (including insurance), corporates, and public sector entities. Jacques is also a regular adviser on corporate governance matters and liability management to board of directors and senior executives.

Prior to joining the firm, Jacques worked in different law firms in New York and Paris and qualified as a member of the bar in both cities. He was a lecturer in corporate law at the University of Paris II-Assas and has published various articles on the subject. He is a graduate of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and Harvard Law School. 

Experience

Representative matters

Marlin Partners on its sale of its majority stake, Talkwalker, to Hootsuite.

Edmond de Rothschild on the sale of their third party asset servicing activities based in Luxembourg to Apex Group, a global financial services provider, being a noteworthy step in Edmond de Rothschild's strategy to focus on its core areas of expertise in private banking and asset management.

Proximus in the set-up of a joint venture with LuxConnect to operate the first sovereign cloud offering in Europe, Clarence, based on Google Cloud technology.

Certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc. on its acquisition of a stake in CPI Property Group, a Luxembourg-based listed real estate player.

Nordea on the sale of part of its Luxembourg-based private banking business,Nordea Bank S.A.,to UBS.

The Luxembourg government, through its start-up incubator Technoport, on a joint venture innovation platform with Vodafone, known as “Tomorrow Street” (closed February 2017).

A global financial institution on the sale to BGL BNP Paribas of all the outstanding shares in its Luxembourg and insurance divisions (closed September 2018).

A global private equity firm on the acquisition of the German Xella group from PAI Partners and Goldman Sachs (closed April 2017).

Corestate Capital on its initial public offering and subsequent uplisting of its shares to the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt regulated stock exchange (closed November 2017).

Published Work

  • "Mandatory Takeover Bid Rule under Luxembourg Law: Applicable Framework and Exceptions", RPDA n. 18, May 2023 
  • "Le casse-tête des règles relatives à la prise de décisions des associés dans une S.à r.l.", RPDA, n. 1, September 2018
  • "Luxembourg Space Resources Act: Paving the legal road to space", Allen & Overy, 2017 (co-author)
  • “Les pactes d’actionnaires et la loi du 10 août 1915: Réflexions et perspectives” in Un siècle d'application de la loi du 10 août 1915 concernant les sociétés commerciales, Kluwer, 2015, pp. 69 à 101
Recognition
Ranked Rising Star
IFLR 1000 2019
Ranked Up and Coming
Chambers Global 2019

Qualifications

Admissions

Admitted as Avocat à la Cour, Luxembourg bar , 2013

Admitted as Avocat, Paris bar, 2010

Admitted as Attorney at Law, New York bar, 2009

Academic

LLM, Harvard Law School, 2008

Master 2, Droit des Affaires, Université Paris II - Assas, 2007

Magistère de Juriste d’Affaires – DJCE, Université Paris II - Assas, 2007

Languages

English, French, German, Luxembourgish, Spanish
Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.