Dealwatch: Europe provides rich pickings for City firms and US giants
Legal Business
White & Case and a group of Italian elite independents advised CVC Capital Partners on the €3bn acquisition of a 52% stake in Italian drug maker Recordati from the family of the company’s founders. The US firm’s Milan office founder Michael Immordino (pictured), London partners Mike Weir, Steven Worthington, Martin Forbes and James Greene were part of the team alongside Milan-based Ferigo Foscari, Leonardo Graffi, Iacopo Canino and Alessandro Nolet. Italian PE firm Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners also acted for CVC with founder Bruno Gattai and partners Gerardo Gabrielli, Nicola Brunetti and Lorenzo Cairo. Pedersoli advised Recordati’s shareholders, led by Carlo Pedersoli.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) acted on telecoms group Veon’s€2.4bn sale of its 50% stake in Italian phone company Wind Tre to CK Hutchison. A&O’s managing partner Andrew Ballheimer, TMT partner Simon Toms and global head of telecoms Tom Levine acted for Veon. Freshfields advised CK Hutchison through corporate partners David Sonter and Natasha Good.
Linklaters and Baker McKenzie advised on Cerberus Capital Management’s €1.2bn acquisition of airport services company Worldwide Flight Services from Platinum Equity. Linklaters’ corporate partners Ben Rodham and Chris Boycott acted for Cerberus alongside finance partners Daniel Gendron and Alexander Naidenov. Bakers’ global private equity head David Allen led the team advising Platinum Equity alongside Paris managing partner Eric Lasry.
Clifford Chance (CC) and Latham & Watkins won mandates on the €7.1bn initial public offering (IPO) of Dutch payment processor Adyen. CC advised Adyen led by Amsterdam corporate partner Hans Beerlage and deploying lawyers from London, Paris and Luxembourg. Latham’s London capital markets partner Olof Clausson acted for the underwriters and bookrunners of the IPO, including Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citigroup.
Slaughter and May, A&O and CC advised on the £1.7bn sale of Virgin Money to CYBG. Slaughters acted for seller Virgin Group, with a team including corporate partners Roland Turnill and Rob Innes. A&O advised Virgin Money, led by corporate partner George Knighton. CC acted for CYBG, with a team headed by corporate partner David Pudge.
Ashurst advised Volcan Investments on the acquisition of Vedanta Resources in a deal valuing the UK mining company at £2.3bn. Corporate partner Tom Mercer led the team acting for Volcan, which already owns 66.5% of Vedanta and is seeking to acquire the rest for £778m. Latham advised the independent committee of the board of Vedanta with a London team led by corporate partners Richard Butterwick and Nick Cline.