Anouk Boutens

Advocaat | Partner

Practice Areas

Sectors

Languages

Dutch
English

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Anouk focuses on corporate employment law (mergers, acquisitions and reorganisations and collective issues and disputes) and pension law. She also regularly advises on employee participation matters. 

In addition, she regularly litigates on these two areas of law, either separately or when they converge, including in court and in arbitration cases. Anouk is involved in various major pension law proceedings on diverse issues, such as pension disputes based on a collective agreement, group transfer payments, disputes on administration agreements, pension scheme changes, employee participation issues and mandatory affiliation with sectoral pension funds. 

From 2013 to 2015, she worked at Houthoff's London office. Anouk is a member of the Dutch Employment Lawyers Association (VAAN), the Pension Lawyers Association (VvPJ) and the Pension Law Association (VvP), as well as the international organisations European Employment Lawyers Association (EELA) and International Pension & Employee Benefits Lawyers Association (IPEBLA). She is also a certified pension lawyer (CPL) and a board member of the Pension Law Association. In addition, she regularly publishes in the Tijdschrift voor Pensioenvraagstukken pension law journal.

  • "A client says: ‘Anouk Boutens and Jet Stolk are amazing. Really practical advice, really thoughtful, and really understand what they are talking about’."
    Legal 500, Employment (2024 edition)
  • Recommended
    Legal 500, Employment (2024 edition)

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

  • Pension Law programme (cum laude) (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
  • PALA (post-academic employment law programme) (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
  • The Law Firm School (cum laude)
  • LL.M. Private Law (Utrecht University)
  • LL.B. Utrecht Law College (Utrecht University)
  • Advised DataExpert B.V. on the acquisition of DetACT Software from Fox-IT B.V.
  • Advised Kemira Oyj as local counsel on the divestment of its Oil & Gass activities, which included a carve-out of certain activities at Kemira's site at Botlek.
  • Advised SPS Commerce, Inc. on the acquisition of all business and operations of TIE Kinetix, listed on Euronext Amsterdam.

  • Advised, together with lead counsel Ropes & Gray International LLP, Bridgepoint Advisers II Limited as a local counsel on its acquisition of the SK AeroSafety group, specialising in maintenance, repair, overhaul and the design and manufacture of aerospace systems and components.
  • Advised Authentix Inc on the acquisition of Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé.
  • Advised Bridgepoint Advisers II Limited on its acquisition of the DataExpert group, a leading provider of products and services to combat cybercrime and fraud and deliver forensic and incident response solutions.
  • Assisted global semiconductor player Nexperia with its acquisition of Netherlands-based Nowi Energy
  • Advised Ariston Holding N.V on the acquisition of CENTROTEC Climate Systems GmbH.
  • Assisted H2 Equity Partners in the sale of its portfolio company Dutch Seafood Company, trading as ''Foppen'', to the listed company Hilton Food Group. 
  • Advising Platinum Equity Advisors LLC on the acquisition of Continental Bakeries.
  • Advised HqO, together with Goodwin Procter LLP, on the acquisition of Office App. Office App is a leading European tenant and employee engagement platform.
  • Advised Bosch Rexroth on the sale of its Large Projects business to Van Halteren Group. Bosch Rexroth is an internationally operating group specialized in mechanical and installation engineering solutions using advanced technologies and extensive industry knowledge.
  • Assisted Corre Energy B.V. with its initial public offering (IPO) on Euronext Dublin
  • Advised H2 Equity Partners on the sale of Brink Group. Brink has more than 100 years of expertise in the manufacturing industry. The company’s product portfolio includes fixed, detachable, retractable and next generation towbars.
  • Advised PRO Unlimited on the acquisition of the Dutch Brainnet Group, both are vendor-neutral managed service providers (MSPs).
  • Advised Proto Labs, Inc, in collaboration with Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (lead counsel), on the USD 330 million acquisition of the Dutch start-up 3D Hubs, the Dutch platform for digital 3D printers.

  • Advised Vermeer Corporation on its acquisition of the electric-powered horizontal directional drilling (HDD) and fluid systems technology from Normag.
  • Represented Agilitas Private Equity Services Limited in the acquisition of TenCate Advanced Armour Holding B.V., the global leading manufacturer of lightweight survivability solutions.
  • Advised BC Partners on the acquisition of Keesing Media Group from Ergon Capital and Mediahuis.
  • Houthoff assisted NCAB Group, listed on NASDAQ Stockholm, with the acquisition of Flatfield. NCAB is a global full-service supplier of PCBs (printed circuit boards) with local presence in 17 countries and sales in 45 countries. Flatfield is one of the leading PCB suppliers in the Benelux region. Outside Benelux, Flatfield also has a broad customer base in Germany. Synergies are expected in the areas of purchasing power and a broader factory base in China. The acquisition is mainly loan financed.
  • Advised the on the Toronto Stock Exchange listed WSP Global Inc., one of the world's leading professional services firms providing engineering and design services to clients in the Transportation & Infrastructure, Property & Buildings, Environment, Power&Energy, Resources and Industry sector as well as offering strategic advisory services, on the acquisition of multidisciplinary consultancy- and engineering firm Lievense

     

  • Houthoff advised Sligro Food Group N.V. with the proposed acquisition of the shares in Exploitatiemaatschappij Wheere B.V. by Sligro Food Group Nederland B.V. This will include the activities of Vroegop Ruhe & Co B.V., consisting of food wholesaler De Kweker, Vroegop AGF and freight company L.A.J. Duncker.
  • Houthoff advised Navitas Capital on the sale and transfer of Partou to KidsFoundation. The owner of KidsFoundation – the English private equity firm Onex – will become the new owner of Partou, together with the Dutch private equity firm Waterland. Partou and KidsFoundation both provide child and toddler care services in the Netherlands, including day care, after-school care and pre-school/early childhood education facilities.
  • Houthoff – together with Sidley Austin LLP – represented Wex Inc., a leading financial technology service provider, in connection with its planned acquisition of EG Group Limited’s GO Fuel Card business. The Go Fuel Card business is headquartered in Breda, Netherlands with approximately 200,000 proprietary cards in circulation across the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

  • Represented Klaas Puul in its merger with Foppen Groep. Both Foppen and Klaas Puul are well known business in the salmon and shrimp processing industry and have long histories as family owned businesses in the food industry. The businesses have been in existence for respectively 100 and 50 years.
  • Represented the shareholders of Boal in the sale of a majority stake in Boal Group to Equistone Partners Europe. Headquartered in Naaldwijk, the Netherlands, BOAL Group has 48 years of experience in designing and manufacturing aluminium roofing and sidewall systems for greenhouses and holds a market leading position in the horticultural greenhouse industry. It also supplies the construction, engineering, and transport sectors with aluminium extrusions.
  • Houthoff (co-counsel to Kirkland&Ellis and Dechert LLP, M&A, VDD) advised Wyndham Worldwide Corp on the sale of its European vacation rental business (Landal part) to private equity firm Platinum Equity for approximately USD1.3 billion.
  • InsingerGilissen Bankiers N.V. ("InsingerGilissen") and Lombard Odier (Europe) S.A. ("Lombard Odier") have entered into an agreement with regard to the acquisition by InsingerGilissen of Lombard Odier's Dutch private banking business. Upon closing of the transaction, the entire Amsterdam-based Lombard Odier staff will join InsingerGilissen, increasing assets under management by roughly EUR 1 billion.
  • Houthoff advised BGI Genomics Co., Ltd. on all Dutch-law aspects in connection with its successful IPO at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. BGI is a leading gene sequencing firm, offering a wide portfolio of genetic testing products across major diseases, enabling medical providers and patients worldwide to realise the promise of genomics-based diagnostics and personalised healthcare.

Practice Areas