A&O Madrid advises on CVC supermarket buy

Allen & Overy's (A&O) Madrid office has acted on its second deal this year for Clifford Chance private equity client CVC Capital Partners. The magic circle firm advised CVC on its purchase of the 600-store Spanish supermarket group El Arbol from Dutch supermarket group Laurus.
A&O Madrid joint managing partner Iñigo Gomez-Jordana, who was recruited from Clifford Chance's Madrid office last year, led on the deal. Linklaters acted for Laurus with Madrid partner Antonio Sánchez-Pedreño leading the team in Spain.
This is the second deal that A&O's Madrid office has done for CVC since June this year, when it acted for the private equity group on the refinancing of its 2000 buyout of Revlon. Clifford Chance acted for Société Générale on both the original buyout and the refinancing. Linklaters advised CVC on the Revlon buyout.
According to Gomez-Jordana, A&O has a longstanding relationship with CVC in the Netherlands. However, the Spanish relationship has only developed since his arrival from Clifford Chance. Gomez-Jordana worked on CVC's first Spanish deal in 1990.
"It's fair to say the relationship [between A&O Madrid and CVC] has been strengthened by my move," he said.
El Arbol is saddled with a first-half operating loss of e29m (£18.2m). At the same time as the disposal to CVC, Laurus gave El Arbol e54m (£33.9m) in loans to provide liquidity and refinance debt.