Saskia Blokland is a partner in the Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Amsterdam corporate and private equity team.
Saskia has a law degree from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands and spent a term studying law at the University of Victoria, Canada (exchange programme). Saskia was admitted to the Amsterdam Bar and started practising in 2001.
Saskia’s areas of expertise include M&A, joint ventures and corporate restructurings. She has been involved in a wide range of both international and domestic transactions, with a focus on private equity. In M&A transactions,
Saskia acts for both corporates as well as private equity funds and also for management. She regularly advises on the acquisition of technology companies. Saskia also has extensive experience advising on joint ventures, being either strategic or project-related joint ventures. In addition to her private equity focus, Saskia has a particular focus in Food & Agri and infrastructure projects.
Saskia previously also gained experience in the banking & finance practice, where she has been advising on a wide range of both domestic and international banking transactions, including asset finance transaction, structured finance transactions, regulatory issues and with a main focus on cross border leveraged finance transactions.
Examples of recent M&A transaction Saskia has advised on, include:
• Advising OpenText (a leader in Enterprise Information Management and a publically traded company on NASDAQ and TSX) on its acquisition of global IT firm, Cordys Holdings, from Vanenburg Group and US PE firm, Argonaut.
• Advising Russian state-owned investment fund Rusnano on its investment in Dutch nanotechnology company Mapper Lithography.
• Advising Louis Dreyfus Commodities Suisse SA on the sale and purchase of all outstanding shares in the capital of Ecoval Holding B.V., a privately-held leading international dairy trading company with offices in Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australia and China.
• Advising BMW on the €700 million (Dutch law governed) acquisition of ING Car Lease, ING Group's car leasing and fleet management business operating in eight countries in Europe.
Saskia leads the ‘Women in Red’ initiative within Norton Rose Fulbright Amsterdam, a network for senior females in business.
