International law firm Bird & Bird advised Driveflow, a subsidiary of the Cosmobilis group, on the sale of En Voiture Simone to Ornikar, the leading online driving school in France. En Voiture Simone is a digital platform that connects driving licence candidates with state-approved independent instructors.
Integrated into the Cosmobilis group five years ago, En Voiture Simone employed 46 staff and generated revenues of €38 million at the time of the sale. Over its twelve years of operations, the company has trained more than 3 million students through a network of 1,000 independent instructors. Under Cosmobilis’s stewardship, the company achieved profitability in the year preceding the transaction. Both brands will continue to operate following completion.
The transaction also lays the groundwork for a strategic partnership between Cosmobilis and Ornikar, underpinned in particular by bee2link, the leading European platform for automotive distribution technologies and services, owned by Cosmobilis.
The combined entity will constitute a leading player in the French market, commanding a 10% market share and serving 100,000 new students annually.
Bird & Bird advised on the transaction as counsel to Driveflow with a team comprising partner David Malcoiffe and senior associate Flavie Malval Le Roux, with the support of Efficiency (Ludovic Giraud, Cendrine Mathieu and Gessyca Nicklin).
