Bio

Hugues Scalbert is a partner within Gide's Mergers & Acquisitions / Corporate practice group. He specialises in domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, and has developed particular expertise in M&A transactions in the insurance, distribution, higher education and defence sectors, as well in as operations in the Gulf region (particularly Saudi Arabia). Hugues has recently advised Europ Assistance in the setting up of its joint venture with Crédit Agricole Assurances, AXA and BNPP for the sale of their life insurance and property and casualty insurance subsidiaries in Ukraine. He regularly advises mutualist and cooperative insurance players (VyV, La Mutuelle Générale, AGMF Prévoyance, Klésia, Malakoff Médéric...). Hugues has also advised the Maus Group on its acquisition of The Kooples;Webedia on its acquisition of a majority stake in Groupe Elephant; ITME Equipement de la Maison on the acquisition of the French operations of Bricorama SAS and the Spanish subsidiaries of Bricorama SA; Japanese group Suntory on the sale of Cognac Louis Royer and on the acquisition with group Castel of Grands Millésimes de France (Château Beychevelle); Intermarché on the disposal of its Bosnian and Serbian subsidiaries; the Swiss group Maus Frères on the sale of Parashop and on the acquisition of Lacoste; the Laureate Group on the takeover of EBS and more generally on all its acquisitions in France, then on the sale of all its French higher education institutions. Hugues was in charge of the firm's Riyadh office from 1992 to 1996. He was a lecturer at the French Business School HEC and is a former auditor at the 62nd session of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale (IHEDN) (French institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence). Hugues is a board member of the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce.