GLA & Co secures dual clearance rapidly for Apollo’s global transaction

GLA & Co secures dual clearance rapidly for Apollo’s global transaction

The deal involved a €1.23 billion takeover bid

Regional law firm GLA & Company has made an exceptional achievement by obtaining a merger control clearance from both the Kuwait Competition Protection Agency (CPA) and the General Authority for Competition (GAC), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in record time.

The approval was secured for a significant global transaction involving the acquisition of Applus Services by Manzana Spain Bidco, with GLA & Co representing Apollo Management X.

The CPA granted clearance in less than two months, complementing the previous success of GLA & Co in securing clearance for the transaction from the GAC.

The transaction involved a €1.23 billion takeover bid by Apollo-backed Manzana Spain Bidco for Applus Services, a Spanish industrial testing group. Apollo Global Management, the parent company, is a prominent American private equity firm with $548 billion in assets under management as of 2022.

Nader Al Awadhi, the Senior Partner at GLA & Co, emphasized the firm’s extensive experience with competition authorities in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Expressing optimism about developments in the regulatory landscape, he highlighted the firm’s global involvement in assisting clients with merger control filings in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Fawaz Al-Dubaikhi, the Partner at GLA & Co, expressed pride in the firm’s track record, having secured over two dozen clearances from competition authorities across the GCC in its initial two years of operations. He said that he looked forward to continuing the firm’s commitment to excellence in the coming years.

The Saudi Arabia and Kuwait offices of GLA & Co collaborated on the dual filings, led by a senior group comprising Ahmad Saleh, Hegui Taha, and Asad Ahmad. They were supported by Associates, including Shahad Alhumaidani, Fahad Albaijan, Khaled Al Makhazeem, Khaled Al Khashab, and Jehan Saleh.