Extending beyond its reputation for outstanding mid-market deal work, Travers Smith has once again put its name to a multibillion-dollar deal as IT company Micro Focus sells its open-source software business SUSE for $2.5bn.
Swedish private equity group EQT Partners is on the other side of the table and turned to US giants Latham & Watkins and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy to advise on the acquisition.
Finance partner Dominic Newcomb is leading for Latham, while Milbank fielded a team headed by Munich corporate partner Steffen Oppenländer. London based Mark Stamp and Joel Harrison are also part of the Milbank team, alongside Munich tax partner Rolf Füger and regulatory expert Alexander Rinne.
Head of corporate Spencer Summerfield is leading the Travers team, supported by corporate partners Jon Reddington and Mohammed Senouci.
There are still a few hurdles left to clear before the transaction completes. SUSE will have to be separated from the rest of Micro Focus and the deal will require antitrust clearance in several jurisdictions. Completion is expected in the first quarter of 2019.
Micro Focus bought SUSE in 2014 as part of the $2.3bn acquisition of US software company The Attachmate Group. Representing only around a quarter of Attachmate, the value of SUSE has risen massively in less than four years.
Travers advised Micro Focus in the 2014 acquisition. As the firm’s client relationship partner, Summerfield’s connection with Micro Focus’ management team dates back to the 2000s, when executive chairman Kevin Loosemore and director of M&A Mike Phillips were at Morse, another IT company.
‘They are an excellent client. They are also a very nice client, and we are doing the sort of work that we are really good at doing,’ Summerfield told Legal Business.
Summerfield, Reddington and Senouci also acted on Micro Focus’ $8.8bn acquisition of Hewlett-Packard’s software business in 2017, a deal which put the Berkshire company in the headlines on the other side of the Atlantic.
Micro Focus is the latest client providing rich mandates for Travers, which in July posted an 18% uptick in turnover to £146.9m, while profit per equity partner jumped 24% to break £1m. Top of the list is private equity house Bridgepoint, which in May instructed the firm on the £1.5bn sale of food chain Pret A Manger to JAB Holding Company.