Slaughter and May and Freshfields have landed lead roles on FTSE 250-listed Rotork’s sale to Swiss industrials company ABB.
Rotork, which specialises in intelligent flow control and valve automation solutions, has been acquired for £4.1bn by Zurich-based technology and engineering multinational ABB.
Slaughters is acting for Rotork, with a team led by the firm’s co-head of corporate M&A Simon Nicholls, and corporate partners Hemita Sumanasuriya and Jack Wharton.
Also on the team are employment and incentives partner Phil Linnard, competition partner and head of the firm’s Brussels office Anna Lyle-Smyth, and pensions partner Chris Sharpe.
Commenting on the deal, Nicholls said: ‘It’s proving to be a busy summer here, and we were delighted to support Rotork on this transaction which reflects the high quality of their business and the work they’ve done through their Growth+ strategy.’
Freshfields is advising ABB, with a team led by chair of the firm’s board and M&A partner Piers Prichard Jones, and M&A partner Tamara Young, both based in London.
In addition, the firm’s team includes global leveraged finance co-head Alex Mitchell, based in London, antitrust partner Helmut Bergmann, based in Berlin, and competition partner Martin McElwee, based in Brussels and London, as well as tax partner Peter Clements and employment partner David Mendel, both in London.
Freshfields has acted for ABB on a number of deals in the last few years, most recently advising the firm on the sale of its robotics division to SoftBank for $5.375bn last October. Prichard Jones led the firm’s advisory team, alongside M&A partner Tom Goodwin and consultant Stephen Hewes, all based in London.
SoftBank was advised by Morrison Foerster, with a team led by Tokyo managing partner Kenneth Siegel, and former global co-chair of M&A Gary Brown, based in London, who moved to Latham & Watkins this May.
The acquisition expands ABB’s global footprint, and will provide it with a well established UK entity that it plans to manage as a separate division within its Automation business area, ABB said in a statement.
The transaction is expected to complete in the first half of 2027, subject to a shareholder vote at Rotork and customary regulatory approvals.
