Cresco

Founding Partner: David Dessers

Managing Partners: Olivier Van Raemdonck

Number of partners: 4

Number of lawyers: 25

Languages: Dutch, English and French

Firm Overview:

Cresco is a premier business law firm focused on providing business law advice and counsel to entrepreneurs, emerging, growth and established companies and various types of investors, including private equity investors, venture capitalists and strategic corporate investors. The firm combines international legal knowhow with business expertise acquired through extensive in-house experience at leading companies active in a broad range of sectors and industries.

Main Areas of Practice:

Mergers & Acquisitions:

Cresco’s M&A practice covers i.a. private equity, information technology, clean tech, life sciences, hospitality, real estate and infrastructure.

■ GramGames and its shareholders in Zynga acquisition

■ TrendMiner and its shareholders in Software AG acquisition

■ MCS Solutions and its shareholders in Nemetschek acquisition

■ Ansem and its shareholders in Cyient acquisition

■ Projective and its shareholders in Diebold- Nixdorf acquisition

Key Clients: Hummingbird Ventures, LRM, imec, KU Leuven, Gimv, PMV, Fortino, Think2Act, Russo

Venture Capital & Private Equity:

Cresco has market-leading capabilities in private equity and venture capital matters including fund formation, capital raisings, (regulatory) compliance, and investments and divestments of portfolio companies.

■ Formation and fundraising of various funds (inc. Hummingbird, Smartfin, Fortino, Xpand, imec.iStart, 9.5 Magnitude Ventures and Volta) in excess of USD 500m

■ Represented these funds in numerous investments and divestments, including GramGames, Deliveroo, Newtec, Showpad, Taxibeat, Kraken and Teamleader

Key Clients: Intel Capital, SmartFin, Hummingbird, Fortino, Gimv, PMV, Volta, Xpand, Think2Act, Partech Ventures

Entrepreneur & Executive Counselling — Emerging & Growth Companies Practice:

Cresco represents entrepreneurs, start-ups, emerging and growth companies, on their plans and ideas, fundraisings and organising their day-to-day business.

■ Investor consortium in its EUR 60 million seed investment in miDiagnostics

■ NGData, a big data analytics company, in its USD 20 million Series C funding round led by HPE

■ Teamleader, a SaaS company, in its EUR 20m funding by Fortino, Keen Ventures and PMV

Key Clients: NGData, Sentiance, Teamleader, Silverfin, The Glue

Intellectual Property & Innovation Counselling:

Cresco structures brand protection, corporate partnering and strategic alliance transactions, R&D deals and co-ownership agreements, group IP structuring and licensing arrangements, outsourcing arrangements and OEM agreements.

■ Investor consortium in the negotiation of complex and sophisticated arrangements for IPR assignment and licensing, and milestone based R&D development by imec and Johns Hopkins University in relation to miDiagnostics

■ Sentiance, Kraken, Silverfin, MCS Solutions, SettleMint, Twikit, Collibra and numerous other companies in the development of their IP strategies and the negotiation of complex license and integration agreements on a worldwide basis

■ Various investment funds with the analysis of the IP portfolios of target companies

■ Flemish government in IT agreement for private cloud and managed services Key Clients: imec, Twikit, Silverfin, Be-Mobile, Collibra, Sentiance, Flemish government, Midiagnostics Dispute Resolution: Cresco advises and represents entrepreneurs and large corporates in a wide range of corporate and commercial disputes. Risk management and efficient dispute resolution in litigation or arbitration are key to the practice.

■ (Former) shareholders and directors on post-acquisition claims

■ Software developers or their clients on licensing agreements and OEM agreements

■ Directors and shareholders on all matters of corporate litigation, and regarding companies in distress

■ Manufacturers and distributors on commercial disputes (agency, franchise, distribution, etc)

■ Real estate owners on all matters of (commercial) lease, sale and purchase, etc

Real Estate:

Cresco delivers innovative, creative and practical legal services for the full spectrum of real estate needs.

■ Eoluz in drafting and negotiation of complex framework agreement for engineering, procurement and construction of PV plants with Eneco Solar

■ PMV, Vermec and other shareholders in implementing a merger and drafting a shareholders’ agreement regarding Comics Station Antwerp, an indoor theme park in Antwerp Central Station

■ Bieze Food Group in acquisition of an industrial warehouse in Westerlo

■ Wannawork in negotiating major commercial lease agreement regarding “Jordaens House” in Antwerp

Key Clients: Belgian and Flemish government, Autogrill, Percassi, Bieze Food Group, Schindler, Eoluz, Comics Station Antwerp, MUCC, WannaWork

Complex Commercial Agreements:

■ By combining industry knowledge, technology acumen and strategic business expertise, Cresco assists entrepreneurs, start-ups, emerging and growth companies, on complex commercial agreements and their day-to-day business

■ Starmeal and Foodmaker in all types of commercial agreements, i.e. commercial lease agreements, business transfer agreements, co-operation agreements with retail partners, co-development agreements and franchise agreements

■ Percassi (world leader in retail development and major real estate projects) with the drafting and negotiation of complex retail agreements in city centres, shopping centres and railway stations in the Benelux

■ Steelforce in acquisition of Eurometal Service’s steel trading business unit

Key Clients: Foodmaker, Starmeal, Steelforce, Food Group België, Percassi, Eoluz