July 23, 2025
Prague—Global law firm Dentons has advised the founders of Adastra Group SE on the sale of a majority stake in the group to global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG). The closing of the transaction, which is expected to be among the largest in the Czech market this year, is pending customary regulatory approvals.
Adastra is a global provider of AI, cloud and data-driven transformation solutions to clients across the financial services, automotive, manufacturing, technology, media and telecommunications, healthcare, retail, and professional services sectors. Headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic and Toronto, Canada, the company employs more than 2,000 professionals across North America, Europe, and Asia. The deal will support Adastra in growing its leading data, cloud and AI offerings, as well as expanding its international presence via organic investments and targeted M&A.
Carlyle is a US-headquartered global investment firm with $453 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2025. The equity investment will come from two of its funds: Carlyle Europe Technology Partners V and Carlyle Asia Partners Growth II. Carlyle will leverage its longstanding track record of investing in and scaling up leading IT services companies globally to support Adastra’s growth.
A cross-border Dentons team, led by partners David Šimek in Prague and Rob Irving and Kamran Pirani in Budapest, provided Adastra with full-scope legal advice on the transaction, including corporate, M&A, tax, private equity and competition aspects. The team included counsel Lukáš Poulík and Tomáš Pavelka, as well as associates Kryštof Vrtek, Abbey Varns, Kateřina Kučerová, Anna Kolodrubcová, Dušan Korbel, Robert Květoň, and Tereza Krejčová in Prague; associates Brigitta Kovacs and Aliz Wulcz, and senior associate Sebastian Ishiguro from the English Law team in Budapest; partner Neil McKnight and associate Alex Williams in London, partners Tobias Bünten and Sascha Grosjean in Germany, and partner Larry Nevsky and senior associate Daniel Safi in Canada.
In recent years, Dentons has helped numerous European technology companies grow their international presence through strategic M&A deals. Other notable transactions on which Dentons has advised include the €2.9 billion sale of Idealista to Cinven, the sale of Photoneo to Zebra Technologies, the sale of Sli.do to Cisco, the sale of Minit to Microsoft, and the sale of aiMotive to Stellantis, among others.