A French business which was heavily reliant on IP assets was being sold. The seller’s advisors had identified a risk on some of the technical elements of the participation exemption regime.

The question arose as to whether or not the trading companies in the group satisfied the test of “trading” for the purposes of the regime.

The analysis involved an element of valuation risk which we obtained comfort on by commissioning our own valuation report. We issued a policy for a limit of overEUR 50m and worked collaboratively with the target’s advisors in a complex transaction.