White & Case, JSA, Freshfields and Kirkland & Ellis advised on GTCR’s €4.1 billion (approx. ₹36,600 crore) acquisition of Zentiva from Advent International.

White & Case LLP has advised Zentiva Group a.s (Zentiva), a leading European generics pharmaceutical company, as lead lawyer for Zentiva on its sale to GTCR LLC (GTCR), as well as certain shareholders on their reinvestment.

The White & Case team which advised on the transaction was led by partner Helen Croke (London) and included partners Vaclav Kubr (Prague), Jessica Kemp, Michael Evans and Annika Randhawa (all London) and Sara Nordin (Brussels), local partner Dominik Stier (Frankfurt) and associates Trishala Naidu, Kikelomo Lawal, Ashwini Mohan, Amy Detheridge, Aliya Manji, Alice Parsons and Emma Middleton (all London).

JSA advised Zentiva on its 100% acquisition by GTCR from its existing investor, Advent International.

GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm, has entered into definitive agreements to acquire generic drugmaker Zentiva from Advent International in a transaction valued at €4.1 billion (approx. ₹36,600 crore).

Zentiva is a leading pharmaceutical company focused on developing and manufacturing highquality, aƯordable medicines, serving over 100 million people across more than 30 countries.

In India, Zentiva operates a manufacturing facility in Ankleshwar, Gujarat.

GTCR brings deep sector expertise across multiple industries, including Financial Services & Technology, Healthcare, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, and Growth Business Services.

The transaction was led by Partner Sidharrth Shankar, with support from the Mergers & Acquisitions team comprising Partners Prakriti Jaiswal and Dhruv Malhotra, and Senior Associate Eksha Narayan.

Freshfields is advising global private equity investor Advent, on the sale of Zentiva, a leading European generics pharmaceutical company, to GTCR.

Since acquiring Zentiva from Sanofi in 2018, Advent has worked closely with the management team to successfully transform the business, whilst investing to expand Zentiva’s portfolio of medicines and manufacturing footprint, both organically and through targeted M&A.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing is expected to take place in early 2026.

The Freshfields team advising Advent is led by private capital partners James Scott in London and Stephanie Hundertmark in Berlin, and London-based senior associate Chris Yarrow. Partner Jill Gatehouse and counsel Rose Swaffield are leading on tax aspects, partner Frank Röhling, counsels Mariusz Motyka-Mojkowski and Bertrand Guerin and principal associate Lasse Petersen are advising on antitrust and foreign investment matters, and counsel Philipp Lehman and senior associate Ben Cohen are advising on intellectual property aspects.

Kirkland & Ellis advised GTCR, a private equity firm, on its acquisition of Zentiva, a European generics pharmaceutical company, from Advent, a global private equity investor.

The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Jacob Traff, David Higgins, Jiri Peterka, Daniel Guerin, Sanford Perl, Rebecca Pearce, Moose Sarfraz, Saniya Sidhu, Simran Johal and Stefano Castoldi; debt finance lawyers Daniel Borg, Lloyd Robertson-Jones, Alex Bond, Ashley Bannister, Oscar Liot, Nick Parker and Colette Watt; tax lawyers Peter Abbott, Polina Liberman, Michael Akpomiemie, Abigail Curry and Denis O’Farrell; capital markets lawyers Christie Mok and Lara Steinbach; technology & IP transactions lawyers Emma Flett, Max Harris and Calum Parfitt; and environmental transactions lawyer Caitlin Meagher-Kreisel.