People
Sophie Rutten
Biography
Sophie specialises in corporate law and securities regulations.
She has over 25 years of experience in equity capital markets transactions, including IPOs, rights issues, private placements, block trades and equity lines. She has extensive experience in public takeovers, delistings, cross-border mergers and restructuring transactions of listed companies. She regularly advises boards on strategic and governance matters, MAR and public company reporting matters. Sophie advises a wide range of clients and sectors, including but not limited to the financial & banking, life sciences and real estate sectors.
Sophie’s high-quality work prompts regular recognition from the top legal directories: “Sophie Rutten's combination of experience, pragmatism and knowledge is stellar.” (Chambers & Partners, 2023)
Practice areas
- Capital markets
- Corporate and M&A
- Disputes
- Equity capital markets
- Joint ventures
- Private equity
- Insurance
- Funds and asset management
- M and A JVs and corporate reorganizations
- Global employment and compensation
Sectors
- Life sciences and healthcare
- Banks
- Insurance
- Private equity
Selected experience
- Exmar on the public takeover by Saverex.
- A multinational telecommunications company on the public takeover of Telenet.
- DEME Group on its partial demerger from CFE and initial listing on Euronext Brussels.
- Elia on its rights issue on Euronext Brussels (underwriters’ counsel).
- Sioen on the public takeover by Sihold.
- Shurgard on its IPO (underwriters counsel) and recent ABB (issuer counsel).
- Azelis on its IPO on Euronext Brussels (underwriters’ counsel).
- Titan Cement SA on its domiciliation in Belgium through the creation of a new holding company and a new listing of the client on Euronext Brussels (primary listing) and the Athens Stock Exchange and a possible listing on Euronext Paris.
- Balta, as issuer, and a global private equity firm, as selling shareholder, on Balta's EUR500m IPO.
- Sipef on its rights issue.
Education
- Law Degree, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), 1993
- LLM, New York University, 1994
Admissions
- Stagiair, Belgium, 1994
- Admitted as advocate, Belgium, 1998
Languages
- Dutch
- English
- French