Diederik is a corporate and commercial lawyer with vast transactional experience and a profound understanding of entrepreneurial needs in businesses. His extensive expertise includes cross-border M&A work, multi-national (re)structurings, complex contracts, specialty lending and financing transactions across the world, with transactional values ranging from under a million to multiple billions.
Diederik acts for a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 and multi-national concerns to family-owned business and start-ups. He also advises private individuals on their legal needs. Diederik serves on the board of various international businesses as a non-executive director. A Belgian national, Diederik is based between London and Brussels and travels extensively for his clients. He is fluent in five languages.
I've found Diederik/Keystone to be an invaluable part of our story, as a startup founder it's important to surround yourself with the best people that complement your weaknesses and can offer solutions. Diederik has a refreshing approach to startups and continues to add value across HR, legal and general business practices as legal counsel and non-exec director to KLEEK. I can not recommend Diederik enough and look forward to working with him for years to come.
Antoine Commane, Founder
KLEEK
Expertise
- Cross-border and domestic M&A, buy and sell side
- Investment projects, private equity and venture capital
- Joint ventures and shareholder agreements
- Complex contracts
- International fractional ownership
- Specialty lending and funding structures
- Legal guidance to start-ups
- Holder of several non-executive board positions
- Company formation and business structuring
Experience
- Advised on numerous M&A and investment transactions in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa
- Acted in multi-jurisdictional JV and corporate group structurings
- Advised on several IPOs ranging in value from EUR 50m to 1.2bn
- Advised on fractional ownership acquisitions in England, Scotland, Italy and Morocco
- Acted in the reorganisation of the capital structure and the junior debt of an international telecoms company in connection with a high-yield bond issuance (EUR 750m)
- Acted in the sale of the cable activities of Belgian municipalities to a telecoms group for EUR 900m, combined with a reinforcement of the group’s equity base of EUR 1.25bn
- Acted in the restructuring of the EUR 160m debt of a listed IT group combined with the sale of the debt to another IT group followed by a swap of debt into equity, and advised on the change of control practicalities
- Renegotiated a USD 1.5bn contract concerning the international wholesale activities of a telecoms group
- Acted in the worldwide restructuring of an American hardware and technology group, split into 3 new divisions in 180 jurisdictions, with the sale of one global division for 1.75bn to a PE fund
- Advised on a EUR 22m bank loan restructuring for a German–Luxembourg consortium with a Liechtenstein bank
- Managed the worldwide tax-driven restructuring of an American pharmaceutical group (revenue USD 40bn), 17 jurisdictions, and advised on corporate matters
- Set up a joint venture between a UK student housing developer and an investment fund to invest £400m across Europe
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Career
Diederik qualified as a solicitor in 2003. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2015, he worked at the following firms:
- Roedl & Partner
- Baker and McKenzie