Overview
Ropes & Gray has a longstanding reputation as one of the world’s leading law firms for private capital clients, with a specific focus on the private equity and asset management industries and strong vertical capabilities in life sciences, healthcare technology and infrastructure. The launch of our Paris office with three of the market’s top practitioners significantly enhances our European private capital and strategic M&A expertise and demonstrates our commitment to being the firm of choice for any European private capital need.
A Single, Integrated European Hub
Our London, Paris and Dublin offices operate as a single European hub offering a powerful combination of local market savvy and the unmatched resources of Ropes & Gray’s global network. Wherever they do business in Europe or around the world, clients can trust our European private equity team—working closely with colleagues worldwide—to make the right deals on the right terms, thoughtfully assess risk and make appropriate tradeoffs, and respond quickly to business demands.
We have enjoyed exponential growth during our 15 years in Europe because of our “client-first” commitment and our private equity and asset management focus. Clients such as European and US private equity firms, sovereign wealth and pension funds, asset managers, listed companies and large industrial groups turn to us to guide them on any private capital-related matter. Our experience spans a wide range of sectors, including aerospace and defense, automotive, healthcare, life sciences, technology, renewables, industrials, business services, consumer and retail.
Our European private equity team advises on:
- Public and private mergers and acquisitions
- Domestic and cross-border transactions
- IPOs and take-private transactions
- Corporate reorganizations
- Sophisticated financings, including US/UK high yield and more innovative ACF solutions
- All investment structures and strategies—including direct investments, co-investments and secondaries
- Securities law
- Acquisition finance—including leveraged buyouts, public-to-private transactions and private investments in public equity
- Private debt
- Real estate finance
- Debt restructuring
What to Expect from Private Equity in Europe in 2026
Experience & Awards
Recent highlights include advising:
- EQT Private Capital on:
- the acquisition of Nord Anglia Education, valuing the business at $14.5 billion
- the acquisition of Tricor Group, Asia’s leading business expansion specialist. (the transaction valued Tricor at an enterprise value of $2.76 billion), and the subsequent merger of Tricor and Vistra into a combined company with a market value of up to $6.5 billion
- the $1 billion+ acquisition of Lumenis, the Israeli-headquartered global leader in the field of minimally-invasive clinical solutions for the aesthetic, surgical and ophthalmology specialties, and the subsequent sale of Lumenis LTD, Surgical Business, a company that develops and commercializes energy-based medical solutions, to Boston Scientific
- Partners Group on:
- the full exit of its investment in Vermaat, the Netherlands-based premium catering and hospitality services provider, following its sale to Compass Group in a transaction that values the company at around €1.5 billion
- its of a majority stake in FairJourney Biologics, a leading antibody discovery Contract Research Organization (CRO), from GHO Capital Partners
- its acquisition of Pharmathen, a European pharmaceutical company and subsequently, Pharmathen on its acquisition of CBL Patras
- PAI Partners on the acquisition of European Camping Group from Carlyle, OTPP and Montefiore
- American Industrial Partners on:
- its acquisition of an ownership position in Aker BioMarine's Feed Ingredients segment
- the acquisitions by its managed investment fund American Industrial Partner Capital Fund VII, L.P. of majority stakes in Norwegian-headquartered AquaShip AS and Intership AS and the subsequent merger and refinancing of the combined group
-
Bain Capital on:
- its sale of the Zellis group to Apax Partners, valuing Zellis at £1.25 billion
- the sale of a stake in Beat Capital Partners to Ambac Financial Group
- TPG Rise Fund on its acquisition of Outcomes First Group, the leading provider of specialist education in the UK, from Stirling Square Capital
- Advent International and its portfolio company NIQ on the strategic combination with GfK (resulting in the world's leading consumer intelligence company) and the associated divestment of GfK's consumer panel business to YouGov
- 65 Equity Partners on its investment in HAS Healthcare Advanced Synthesis SA’s (“HAS”), and HAS’s planned acquisition of Cerbios-Pharma SA (“Cerbios”), a globally recognised manufacturer of chemical and biological APIs
- Brahma, a global AI and content technology company created by the DNEG Group, and the DNEG Group, in Brahma’s acquisition of Metaphysic, a leading developer of AI content creation technologies
- ERM, the world’s largest sustainability consultancy, and the ERM Partner shareholders, on the $2.7billion sale of ERM to KKR
- New Mountain Capital and its portfolio company Datavant on the acquisition of Convenet, a health technology infrastructure company
- AEA Investors on its sale of Process Sensing Technologies, a leading provider of moisture, oxygen and trace gas measurement solutions and systems for various industries including healthcare environments and manufacturing
- Avista Capital Partners and Nordic Capital and Swiss pharmaceutical company Acino on the sale of Acino to ADQ
- TSG Consumer Partners on its acquisition of Cadogan Tate, a premium moving and storage business, specialising in fine art
- GHO Capital and its portfolio company Envision Pharma Group, on its acquisition of OKRA.ai, an
award-winning technology company - 3i Group plc on the acquisition of Audley Travel, a provider of tailor-made experiential holidays
Our London team has been recognized for its work by numerous leading sources, including:
-
Ranked
Private Equity: Buyouts: £500 million and above
Chambers, UK Guide 2025 : UK-wide -
Ranked
Private equity: Transactions – high-value deals (£500m+)
Legal 500, London Guide 2024
