Taylor Wessing advises The Music Group on a European deal for the sale of the world's leading clarinet brand to the tune of EUR 37m

Taylor Wessing advised The Music Group Holdings Ltd (TMG) on the EUR 37m sale of its leading music industry brand, Buffet Crampon, internationally renowned as the world's leading clarinet brand, to French private equity house, Argos Soditic.  TMG sold the French holding company, Buffet Crampon Holdings SAS and its trading subsidiary together with its US and Japanese distribution companies.

TMG is a portfolio company, owned by Taylor Wessing's long-standing client, Rutland Partners LLP, the private equity partnership.  The transaction involved lawyers from Taylor Wessing's offices in the UK, Germany and France as well as its appointed law firms in Japan and the US.  The sale was complex and included a series of post closing trading agreements between the retained and acquired companies including the continued sub-contracting of the manufacture of certain instruments to Wenzel Schreiber, part of the retained TMG group, located in Germany.

Corporate partner Tim Eyles led the Taylor Wessing team which included Nick Hazell, Vanessa Graham, Glenda O'Hara, Saskia King (corporate), Gareth Morgan (intellectual property) and Martin Yells (finance) in the London office. The advisory team also included Gilles Amsallem, Marc Schuler, Anne Perrin and Laurence Lapeyre (TW France) and Andreas Metzner (TW Germany). 

Taylor Wessing also advised Rutland Partners in February 2003 when TMG was formed to acquire the musical instrument manufacturing business of Boosey & Hawkes Plc.