Ardian signed a securities purchase agreement to acquire 52% stake in Artefact SA (ENXTPA:ALATF) from a group of shareholders for approximately €140 million on September 17, 2021. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Ardian shall pay €7.8 per share (subject to customary adjustments at the date of completion of the transfer of the Controlling Block, notably in the event of dividend distributions, it being specified that the co-founders and co-chief executive officers of Artefact SA have undertaken to use their best efforts to ensure that Artefact SA does not carry out any transactions that would result in such adjustments). The shareholders include François de la Villardière, Vincent Luciani, Guillaume de Roquemaurel, Financiere Arbevel, Truffle Capital S.A.S., Otus, Fonds Nobel, managed by Weinberg Capital Partners, several managers and minority shareholders. Pursuant to the securities purchase agreement, certain selling shareholders will also transfer to Ardian 20,000 share purchase options (bons de souscriptions d’actions) representing all of the share purchase options issued by Artefact SA (the “SPO”), for a price of €1,190 per SPO. Following the completion of the acquisition of the controlling block and the SPO , Ardian will file a mandatory simplified cash tender offer for the remaining share capital of Artefact SA at the same price of €7.8 per ordinary share (the “Offer”). In the event that the threshold for a squeeze-out is reached following the offer, Ardian intends to request the implementation of a squeeze-out of the remaining not tendered Artefact SA securities pursuant to applicable French laws and regulations. As on September 29, 2021, Ardian completed the acquisition of 50.362% stake in Artefact SA from a group of shareholders. In accordance with applicable French laws and regulations, Ardian will file within the month of October 2021 a mandatory simplified cash tender offer for the remaining share capital of Artefact at the same price of €7.8 per ordinary share. The transfer of the Controlling Block and the SPO was subject to the approval of the German and Austrian competition authorities, which were obtained prior to the signing of the SPA. With effect from the date of completion of the sale of the Controlling Block Philippe de Verdalle, resigned as director of Artefact, François de la Villardière from his position as director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Artefact, Marguerite de Tavernost and Olivier Duha from their positions as directors of Artefact. It is expected to acquire approximately 1.84% of the share capital and voting rights of Artefact in the next few days, bringing its shareholding to approximately 52.20% of the share capital and voting rights of Artefact. As a reminder, the Board of Directors of Artefact SA decided on July 25, 2021, upon recommendation of an ad hoc committee set up for this purpose, to appoint in accordance with the provisions of Article 261-1 I, 1°, 2°, 4° and II of the AMF’s General Regulation, Accuracy, represented by Henri Philippe, as independent expert mandated to produce a report on the financial conditions of the offer and any squeeze-out and to present its conclusions in the form of a fairness opinion. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Artefact SA on October 11, 2021. Olivier du Mottay, Philippe Tesson, Mayssa Sader, Michel Houdayer, Olivia Rauch-Ravisà and Mathilde Saltiel from Latham & Watkins LLP (Paris) acted as a legal advisor to Ardian. SG Corporate & Investment Banking acted as financial advisor to Ardian. Xavier Houard, Thomas Chardenal, Franck Bernauer, Maximilien Llurens, Olivier Masi and Alban Progri of KPMG Avocats acted as legal advisor to Ardian.