Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Languages

• English
• French

Lawyer Overview

Wesley Johnson is Partner-in-Charge in Paris. His practice focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance generally. Major recent client representations have included:

• Rhône-Poulenc Chimie/Rhodia with a series of dispositions and restructurings involving French and overseas assets (1994-ongoing)

• La Poste Française/Co&Lo/Geopost with its international M&A program, including acquisition of the DPD parcel network in Germany, acquisition of Mayne Nickless in U.K., joint venture with FedEx, and postal alliances in Europe (1997-ongoing)

• Ernst & Young with the contribution of its worldwide consulting business to Cap Gemini and ensuing secondary offering of shares in a public offering in France and Rule 144A private placement in the United States (1999)

• Diebold with its acquisition of the worldwide automatic teller machine (ATM) assets and activities of Bull S.A. and Getronics (1999-2000)

• France Telecom with its $7.7 billion acquisition of a controlling interest in Auna, the parent company of Amena, Spain's third largest mobile operator (2005); the acquisition of a controlling interest (2001) and the buyout of minority shareholders (2005) of Equant; and the restructuring of Ericsson and Nokia vendor loans (2003) as well as the acquisition of a 100 percent stake in the Spanish company Ya.com (2007)

• Thales Group in the disposition of Magellan and the disposition of its 2.2 percent shareholding in Embrear (2006) and

• sanofi-aventis with various pending acquisition/disposition transactions (1999-ongoing).

Other French clients he has regularly represented include Total, Calyon, and Banque CPR. Representative U.S. clients include Abbott Laboratories, Diebold, and Parker Hannifin with respect to European M&A transactions.

Wesley is cited yearly as one of the best corporate/M&A lawyers in France in the guides Chambers Global, PLC Which lawyer?, and The Legal 500 EMEA.

Areas of Practice

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• M&A
• Joint Ventures & Strategic Alliances
• Energy
• Energy Transactions

Representative Cases

• Acquisition by Wendel Investissement , (2007)
• Acquisition of Amena
• Acquisition of Equant
• Acquisition of Equant
• Acquisition of Frankfurter Kreis' Stake in DPD
• Acquisition of Parceline and Interlink Express
• Alliance with Federal Express
• Alliance with Posten AB
• French Private Equity Joint Venture
• Getronics and Groupe Bull Acquisition
• Joint Venture with Raisio Chemicals
• Merger with Elf Aquitaine
• Merger with Reno De Medici , (2007)
• Restructuring of Interest in MobilCom
• Sale of Albright & Wilson European Surfactants Business
• Sale of Household Insecticides Business
• Sale of Management Consulting Business
• Sale of Navigation business
• Sale of Thann & Mulhouse
• Sale of worldwide silicones business
• Sale of Wynn's Industrie
• Spin-off of Aventis' Bone Disease Unit and Merger of ProSkelia with Strakan Group

West Practice Categories

Business Organizations, Business Successions, Closely Held Businesses, Corporate Governance, Directors' & Officers' Liability, Dissolution, Formation & Business Planning, Franchising, Joint Ventures, Limited Liability Companies, Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures, Non-profit & Tax-exempt Organizations, Partnerships, Reorganizations, Shareholders' Rights, Trade Associations

Bar Admissions

• California
• Paris, France

Education

• Harvard University

Address

120, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris 75008, France

Phones

33.1.56.59.39.39 (Business Phone)

Faxes

33.1.56.59.39.38 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com