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Host of Global 100 firms advise on Coke bottler’s $31bn three-way merger

Over ten firms were involved in the complex cross-border merger that saw three of The Coca-Cola Company’s bottlers unite to create the world’s largest independent bottler for the soft drink maker.

Combining the operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), Coca-Cola Iberian Partners (CCIP) and Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke (CCEAG), Coca-Cola European Partners will be headquartered in London and serve over 300 million consumers across 13 countries. The new company is expected to have net revenues of $12.6bn and a value of around $31bn.

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in July and August 2015

PEARSON TURNS TO FRESHFIELDS ON SUMMER FT AND ECONOMIST SELL-OFF

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Pearson twice over the summer. The publisher sold the Financial Times to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom client Nikkei and split its 50% stake in The Economist Group between Macfarlanes client and co-shareholder Exor, while Linklaters acted for The Economist.

 

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DLA splits from SA alliance firm Cliffe Dekker over integration and branding issues

Last month saw DLA Piper and South African firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr end their ten-year formal alliance over integration and branding issues, with the international firm making plans to open a greenfield site in Johannesburg to preserve a presence in the market.

DLA wanted Cliffe Dekker, which carries the DLA branding, to become more closely integrated with the firm. However, the majority of the partnership at Cliffe Dekker felt they would lose too much independence and freedom to operate as a result. At the time the duo said they would continue to maintain a relationship to support existing client relationships and refer clients where appropriate.

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Greenberg makes a splash in Europe after two mass summer hires in Berlin and Warsaw

Greenberg Traurig has made a concerted push into Europe this summer. Having recruited a 12-lawyer real estate team in May from Allen & Overy and Norton Rose Fulbright in Poland, including both firms’ former local real estate heads, in July Greenberg acquired Olswang’s entire Berlin office, comprising a 14-partner team, to launch its first German outpost.

Greenberg’s German base will open its doors on 1 October 2015, as the firm’s fourth European office after London, Amsterdam and Warsaw. The group hire included taking Olswang’s managing partner in Germany, Christian Schede, who will serve as the German managing shareholder for Greenberg, as well as a team that Olswang has been building since it first set up shop in Berlin in 2007. It had hired from Magic Circle firms Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to build a practice that was ranked second tier for real estate in The Legal 500.

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The wellness crisis for in-house counsel – you must sort it out

Paul Gilbert argues that general counsel’s failure to act as a team has heaped a rising burden on stressed in-house lawyers

As a consultant spending most of my professional time working with general counsel (GCs), so concerned have I become at the pressures and strain on the mental health of in-house counsel, that this summer I authored a report on what I see as the crisis in well-being in-house. In this article I won’t repeat those concerns – nor dwell on how poorly I believe some GCs are addressing the issue – but I will try to identify the root causes of the problems I have found and some simple steps to rectify them.

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Case study: Allen & Overy

Amid a challenging year for London’s top firms, Allen & Overy (A&O) managed to hit its stride with revenue growth of 4% to £1.28bn, while profits per equity partner (PEP) came in at £1.21m, a rise of 8%.

The result was significantly ahead of A&O’s London peers, which have also seen their sterling results impacted by weakness in the euro and the inroads of US law firms in City deal work (in constant currency, A&O estimates its revenue growth at 8%). Continue reading “Case study: Allen & Overy”

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Case Study: Simmons & Simmons

Life for a financial services-heavy law firm competing with larger rivals was always going to be challenging after the banking crisis, but Simmons & Simmons suffered more than most as it wrestled with abortive merger talks, plunging turnover and strategic discord.

This makes its revival in the last two years all the more welcome. Following a torrid 2012/13, with memories still fresh from its divisive merger bid with Mayer Brown, the firm was left with revenues £40m below its boom-time peak in 2008 but its previous high has finally been passed with an 8% rise in revenues this year and profits per equity partner (PEP) up 17% to £649,000, making its performance one of the strongest in the UK top 25 this year and by far the best by a ‘chasing pack’ firm. Continue reading “Case Study: Simmons & Simmons”

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Case study: Osborne Clarke

It was another strong performance from Legal Business’ 2015 Law Firm of the Year, Osborne Clarke (OC), which saw revenues grow from £142m to £151m, with profits per equity partner up from £513,000 to £550,000.

‘We had a fantastic year the year before and just to keep that momentum going was key for us,’ says UK managing partner Ray Berg (pictured). ‘There was no complacency. We continue to do well in our core areas and retain a strong sector focus.’ Continue reading “Case study: Osborne Clarke”

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Case study: Charles Russell Speechlys

‘We have worked very hard since the outset to demonstrate that we are not simply a private client firm,’ says James Carter, managing partner of Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS). His comments come nine months after the union of Charles Russell and Speechly Bircham, creating a 530-lawyer practice that moves into the UK top 30 with revenues of £134.5m, slightly ahead of the legacy firms’ combined income for 2013/14.

When Carter says private client, he means old-fashioned trusts and estates work. The firm is looking to position itself as a leading private wealth player, covering the full range of commercial legal services for the privately wealthy, including litigation and corporate. Carter wants CRS to leverage its strong reputation in areas including employment, media, sport and fraud practices, alongside private client in all its guises, including a second-tier family practice. Speechly Bircham, alongside its recognised strength in both contentious trusts, personal tax and probate, had a well-regarded mid-market corporate practice. Continue reading “Case study: Charles Russell Speechlys”

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Deal machines – the resilience of Macfarlanes, Travers Smith and the mid-tier deal team

The forced obsolescence of Macfarlanes and Travers Smith as City-focused M&A teams has been as long predicted as it has failed to materialise. Since 2010, after both firms quickly recovered from a brutal post-Lehman shock, the pair have proved not just resilient but able to thrive.

The pair performed robustly again in 2014/15, with Macfarlanes having been one of the most successful top-100 firms over the last five years with organic revenue growth of 73%. Around 20% of revenue is generated by its corporate department, reflecting the size of its private client practice and a concerted push to broaden its disputes, regulatory and finance teams. Continue reading “Deal machines – the resilience of Macfarlanes, Travers Smith and the mid-tier deal team”

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News in brief – September 2015

BAKERS’ 2014/15 FINANCIALS SEE FIRM SLIP BEHIND DLA

Baker & McKenzie revealed it generated $2.43bn in the year to 30 June 2015, a 4% fall on last year’s $2.54bn. The firm said a strengthening dollar had hit its top-line and also helped push profit per equity partner down to $1.14m from $1.29m. The firm said it had invested in a new financial and management system and hired 51 lateral partners over the year.

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Roaring back – Corporate activity has soared in Ireland

Ireland flag portrait

Earlier this year, Ireland’s prime minister (An Taoiseach) Enda Kenny made an appeal to emigrants who had departed the country in the aftermath of the economic crash to return home. Speaking at the launch of an official government policy paper, ‘Global Irish: Ireland’s Diaspora Policy’, the appeal was aimed at encouraging educated Irish people to return, as the government ramps up efforts to entice international investment and capitalise on the fragile Irish economic recovery.

Identifying around 200,000 people, Kenny said: ‘Emigration has a devastating impact on our economy as we lose the input of people, of talent and energy. We need these people at home. And we will welcome them. I believe that, after seven years of emigration, 2016 will be the year when the number of our people coming home will be greater than the numbers who leave.’

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The LB 100 2015 – Through the looking glass

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Guest post: Sir John! Sir John! Are we there yet? – lawyerly interventions on Iraq

One of the absurdities of this year’s ‘silly season’ has been another of Britain’s periodic bouts of Chilcot-bashing. When there’s a period of slow news, it seems, journalists remember that Sir John Chilcot was tasked six years ago with inquiring into what we all call simply ‘Iraq’; and that his report is not published yet. There follows a chorus of disapproval, and demands that something be done.

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Beating ‘Friday afternoon’ fraud

Sophisticated criminals are increasingly targeting firms of solicitors with so-called ‘Friday afternoon’ frauds.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) reported in March that it is receiving four reports a month of solicitors falling victim to these scams, which tend to involve a combination of identity fraud and cyber techniques, such as hacking and spear phishing.

The term Friday afternoon fraud has helped raise the profile of these types of scam – but it is important to note that they are certainly not confined to Friday afternoons, so firms and their employees must be vigilant at all times. Continue reading “Beating ‘Friday afternoon’ fraud”

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Hacked off with cyber risk? You may be…

Carter Perry Bailey’s Mark Aizlewood and Simon Thomas highlight the threat to law firms.

At the time of writing, news arrived that car owners in the US have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler and a dashboard computer manufacturer after hackers used a laptop computer to take control of a Jeep being driven on a St Louis highway, thus also precipitating a product recall and illustrating why cyber risk is widely considered to be the fastest-growing threat to businesses.

A leading global insurer reports that it presents the ‘biggest, most systemic risk’ faced by the market in over 40 years. Law firms are not immune. Continue reading “Hacked off with cyber risk? You may be…”