People
Dirk Meeus
Biography
Dirk is Global Co-Head of M&A and Established Industries Sector Lead.
He specialises in public and private mergers & acquisitions, private equity and equity capital markets. His work on significant, cross-border transactions for Belgian companies, as well as his defence of them in hostile takeover situations, has earned Dirk a stellar reputation. He also has a wealth of experience in advising international clients and large private equity players.
All the leading legal guides commend Dirk for his outstanding work in his field: “He is brilliant.” (Chambers & Partners, 2023); “Dirk Meeus remains a force to be reckoned with. He loves a good game of strategy – he is excellent in auctions on the sell side and will assist in developing the best strategy/approach.” (Legal 500, 2023).
Dirk is admitted to both the Brussels Bar and New York Bar.
Practice areas
- Capital markets
- Corporate and M&A
- Equity capital markets
- Private equity
- Insurance
- Joint ventures
- Disputes
- M and A JVs and corporate reorganizations
- Public company advisory and corporate governance
Sectors
- Banks
- Technology
- Life sciences and healthcare
- Private capital
- Industrials and manufacturing
- Insurance
- Private equity
- Consumer and retail
Selected experience
- Recticel on its successful defence strategy against the hostile takeover attempt by Greiner AG, which included the sale of its bedding business to the Portuguese group Aquinos and the sale of its engineered foam business to the American Carpenter group.
- Waterland, the shareholders of the Sentia, a cloud consulting company, on the disposal of Sentia Group to Accenture, including the carve-out of certain activities of Sentia, notably its Danish businesses and certain data centers, prior to closing the deal with Accenture.
- SFPI-FPIM, Belgium’s Federal Holding and Investment Company, on the sale of EUR2.17bn worth of shares in BNP Paribas.
- TVH, The Thermote and Vanhalst families, on the internal restructuring and carve-out of the various business units of the TVH Group and the subsequent auction sale of a 40% stake in TVH Parts to D’Ieteren Group.
- Recticel on its successful defence strategy against the hostile takeover attempt by Greiner AG, which included the sale of its engineered foam business to the American Carpenter group.
- AAC Capital Partners, the international private equity company, the initial founders and the management investors on the auction sale of the Desotec group, an international leading manufacturer and provider of activated carbon solutions, to the EQT VII fund.
- Balta as issuer, and a global private equity firm, as selling shareholder, on Balta’s EUR500 million initial public offering and listing of its shares on the Euronext Brussels. This was the largest IPO on Euronext since bpost in 2013.
- The largest shareholders in an insurance company on the company's EUR1.25bn capital increase.
- Delta Lloyd Groep on the EUR219 million sale of its Belgian banking business to Anbang Group Holdings a Chinese insurance group.
- Gilde Buy Out Partners, the Netherlands-based private equity firm, on the acquisition of Oystershell, a Belgian based OTC company with headquarters in Ghent.
Education
- LLM, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1991
- Law Degree, FNDP Namur and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), 1990
- Heidelberg University – Erasmus - 1989
Admissions
- Stagiair, Belgium, 1991
- Admitted to the bar, State of New York, USA, 1994
- Admitted as advocaat, Belgium, 1995
- Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2021
Languages
- Dutch
- English
- French