L Capital Acquires Princess Yachts International

Business Wire, June 3, 2008

PARIS -- L Capital 2 FCPR, an investment group sponsored by LVMH - Mo[R]t Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Groupe Arnault, signed a definitive agreement, on Friday, May 30th, to proceed with the acquisition of Princess Yachts International, subject to appropriate anti-trust approvals.

L Capital controls over 70% of the Company's voting rights and has been supported by its co-investors including the Belgian investment group Cobepa. Calyon Bank participated in the funding of the transaction.

Princess Yachts International is delighted to team up with one the leading investment funds in luxury and aspirational brands, where the strengths built over the last 40 years can be combined with a company which has a track record of growing global brands.

"L Capital has recognized in Princess one of the leading yacht companies in the world with a remarkable group of managers Princess has a long standing tradition of building modern, sophisticated, high quality yachts with a reputation for excellent sea keeping" said Daniel Piette, Chairman of L Capital.

The discussions have been led by David King, Managing Director and founder of Princess, who commented, "This new partnership will bring many opportunities for Princess. We could not have found a better partner to share our vision for growth and to help us develop a stand alone business that benefits from the expertise of its sponsors."

The Vendors were advised by the M&A firm Cavendish (Paul Herman), and legal advisers Boyce, Hatton (Cris Boyce). The Management were advised by law firm, Osborne, Clarke (Paul Cooper). For the acquirer, the transaction was led by Philippe Franchet and Eduardo Velasco from L Capital and advised by Bain & Company for the strategic due diligence (Ugo Fiaccadori), E&Y (Justin Welstead) for the accounting and financial due diligence and law firm Linklaters (Carlton Evans and Fabrice de la Morandi[c]re) for tax and legal due diligence and transaction documents. The transaction was advised on the M&A buy side and debt financed by Calyon (Stephane Publie and Geraldine Fosset) which was advised by law firm Herbert Smith (Jacques Bertrand de Balanda).