Peter Verhaeghe is the managing partner of VVGB Advocaten / Avocats. His areas of expertise include corporate, corporate finance, contract and tax law. He has extensive industry related experience and knowledge in the biotech, pharmaceutical, consumer products, retail and media sectors of the economy.
Peter Verhaeghe
E: peter.verhaeghe@vvgb-law.com
T: +32 2 542 07 80
F: +32 2 534 58 88
T: +32 475 75 46 10
Experience
Mr. Verhaeghe graduated magna cum laude in law from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1981. From 1981 to 1983, he was an assistant professor of tax law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He earned his LL.M. at Harvard Law School in 1984. He speaks fluently Dutch, French and English, and has a working knowledge of German. He started his career in private practice with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (“CGSH”) in 1984 in New York. Thereafter through 1992 he worked in the Brussels and London offices of CGSH. From 1993 through the middle of 1999 he was an equity partner with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP working from the Brussels office with legal and tax activities throughout the EU, Africa and the former USSR. In 1999 he joined forces with Edwin Vermulst to lay the founding of the VVGB law firm.
Mr. Verhaeghe represents major European, American and Asian multinationals and medium-size enterprises in all sectors of the economy. He has significant corporate and tax experience in advising clients on the establishment and functioning of holding and trade companies as well as, distribution and service centers in Europe. He has also extensive experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, structuring and negotiating joint ventures, privatizations of state-owned enterprises, project finance, and private equity transactions in all sectors of the economy, real estate transactions and all kinds of debt and equity offerings. In addition, Mr. Verhaeghe has represented over the years several media and entertainment groups, as well as numerous biotech and pharmaceutical companies with respect to their intellectual property rights and the legal and tax aspects of their financing needs. In the Benelux Mr. Verhaeghe has acted as lead counsel to companies such as Tibotec-Virco, Galapagos, Movetis, Biocartis, As Adventure, Merisant, Fenwal, Monsanto.
Mr. Verhaeghe has acted as lead counsel for direct investment, private placements, public offerings, project finance and privatization projects in various countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Russia, Morocco and the United States of America.
Mr. Verhaeghe has published in various publications on a variety of Belgian and international corporate and tax issues. He was a member of the board of editors of Fiscale Actualiteit, a major Belgian tax periodical published by Wolters Kluwer België N.V. He is a member of the Legal and Taxation Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels. Mr. Verhaeghe is a member of the Brussels Bar, the International Bar Association and the International Fiscal Association. He has acted in 1998 and 1999 as the national reporter for Belgium on tax developments for the International Bar Association.
He is a past Member of the Board of Directors of Tibotec-Virco NV (Belgium), Innogenetics NV (Belgium), KBC Private Equity Biotech (Belgium), Bever Zwerfsport Investments BV (The Netherlands), PharmaNeuroBoost NV (Belgium), Biocartis SA (Switzerland), Merisant Company 2 sàrl (Switzerland), CzechPak Manufacturing sro (Czech Republic) as well as past Chairman of Merisant France SAS (France). He has been also liquidator of KBC Private Equity Biotech NV, a Euronext listed biotech fund. He is currently Chairman of the Supervisory Board of arGEN-x BV (The Netherlands), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Haretis S.A. (Luxembourg) and Member of the Board of Directors of Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen (PMV) (Belgium).
Credentials
Education
- LLM, Harvard Law School, 1984
- JD, Magna Cum Laude, Catholic University of Leuven, 1981
Bar admissions
- Member of the Brussels bar
Languages
- English
- Dutch
- German
- French
Honors & Awards
Over the past years Mr Verhaeghe has been several times listed in Euromoney’s Legal Group Guide as one of the leading tax advisors in Belgium. Mr. Verhaeghe’ corporate and finance practice has also won a series of international awards in recent years:
Independent Law Firm of the Year in Belgium’ (2012 Corporate International Magazine Global Award)
Boutique Law Firm of the Year – Belgium (2012 InterContinental Finance Magazine Global Award)
Best Corporate, Tax & Contract Law Firm Belgium (2012 Lawyers World Country Awards)
Corporate Finance Advisory Firm of the Year Belgium (2013 Finance Monthly Global Award)
Project Finance Law Firm of the Year in Belgium (2013 Global Law Experts Practice Awa
Recent matters
- Mr Verhaeghe has in 2011 and 2012 been lead counsel on a series of complex financing, corporate and tax restructuring transactions as well as major tax cases