Swiss behemoth buys Australasia’s largest ground handling company
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Hogan Lovells was the lead legal adviser of Swissport Group in its acquisition of the largest ground handling company in Australia and New Zealand.
The Opfikon, Switzerland-based company, the world’s largest ground and cargo handling services provider, acquired Aerocare from Archer Capital and Aerocare management in a deal that closed last week.
Johnson Winter & Slattery (JWS) advised Archer Capital and the Aerocare management team on all aspects of their divestment. Swissport now owns 100% of Aerocare and its subsidiaries Skycare, Carbridge, and EasyCart.
Hogan Lovells fielded a cross-practice and multi-jurisdictional team for the deal, which also involved a €325m ($513m) incremental Term Loan B facility, financed by Barclays.
The global firm’s team was led by banking partner Alexander Premont in London and Paris, banking partner Gordon Wilson in Washington, DC, banking partner Richard Hayes in Sydney, corporate partner Matthew Johnson in Perth, and international debt capital markets partner Sylvain Dhennin in London.
Hayes, who heads the firm’s banking practice in Australia, said that the firm looks forward to working with the Swissport and Aerocare teams in the future.
Corporate partner James Rozsa led the JWS team.
Swissport’s more than 68,000 staff members operate in 315 airports across the world. Aerocare has more than 3,000 staff working in 36 airports in Australia and New Zealand.
