Caroline Daout
Partner
d: +32 (0)2 647 73 50
m: +32 (0)485 66 08 15
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Areas of expertise
Industries
Languages
French
English
Caroline has over 25 years of experience in advising Belgian and international corporate clients and private equity investors.

Caroline’s focus is on cross-border and domestic M&A, public and private, joint ventures and equity capital market.

Caroline has represented many local and international clients on both sell and buy-side transactions across a wide range of sectors, including life sciences and healthcare, technology and software, energy and manufacturing where she handled several strategic, high-profile and complex transactions. Caroline is also very active in disputes that arise in her areas of practice.

Caroline has written and co-authored a number of publications in the fields of mergers and acquisitions and business law. She regularly participates in conferences as speaker on topics relating to M&A and private equity and lectures on aspects of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and IPO transactions.

Prior to joining Van Bael & Bellis, Caroline worked for 20 years in a leading international law firm where she was a partner and head of the Belgium office’s corporate M&A practice group.

Contact Caroline Daout
“
Caroline Daout is sharp, in the details, very commercial and knows how to handle a deal not only with her client, but also with the counterparties.
Client, Chambers Global 2026, Corporate/M&A

Representative matters

  1. Indigo in its acquisition of Apcoa’s Belgian subsidiary which operates across various regions
  2. Trane Technologies in various strategic acquisitions.
  3. Sopra Steria on a EUR 560 million recommended public takeover bid for the Ordina group.
  4. Sopra Steria on its acquisition of Tobania through a competitive auction process.
  5. Sopra Steria Group on the complex carve-out of its banking software business and sale thereof to French-American listed ICT company Axway
  6. Invivo on its acquisition of La Malterie du Chateau, Belgium’s oldest malthouse.
  7. InVivo Group (through Moulins Soufflet), one of Europe’s leading agricultural players, on the sale of one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, CERES, to a German-based milling group.

Professional 

  1. Admitted to Brussels Bar, 1992

Academic

  1. Harvard Business School, Executive leadership, 2011
  2. University of Louvain, Master of Laws, 1992
  1. Member of the Belgian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association
  2. Member of Women in Law
  3. Member of the International Bar Association
  1. Legal 500
  2. Chambers & Partners
  3. IFLR 1000
  4. “I go to Caroline Daout because she has really deep technical understanding and great advice. She has a pragmatic approach and is really communicative.” Client, Chambers Global 2025, Corporate/M&A

Publications

  1. Belgique, droit des sociétés, Francis Lefebvre, Paris, 2016
  2. Governance in public limited liability companies, 2021 (Article)
  3. Lexology, Reform of the Belgian Companies Code, 2019 (Article)