Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised on the sale of a 75% stake in the sports marketing unit of Lagardère Group to H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm based in Miami—part of a strategic refocusing by the Paris-based publishing, retail and entertainment group.

The sale, which closed Monday, is subject to approval by European competition authorities. The deal values the stake in Lagardère Sports at €110 million. Lagardère Group will retain a 25% stake in the unit's division, Lagardère Sports & Entertainment, which provides marketing and management for professional sports and other live events.

Lagardère Group announced in 2019 it would scale back involvement in sports marketing and entertainment to concentrate on developing its publishing and travel retail businesses, which together provided 82% of global revenue in 2018. Lagardère's global brands include the Hachette and Larousse publishing houses and the Aelis duty-free shops. The group posted revenue of €7.26 billion for 2018 and €3.6 billion for the first half of 2019. It will report full-year 2019 results Thursday.

Willkie advised Lagardère, fielding a team out of Paris led by corporate and financial services partner Annette Péron and including partner Faustine Viala on antitrust.

Freshfields advised H.I.G. with a team led by principal associate Julia Sellmann in Hamburg with the support of teams in Paris, Singapore, New York and other offices in Germany, including corporate and M&A partner Michael Haidinger in Hamburg, tax partner Christian Ruoff in Hamburg, competition partner Katrin Gassner in Düsseldorf, corporate and M&A partner Florent Mazeron in Paris, tax partner Cyril Valentin in Paris, and labor partner Christel Cacioppo in Paris.