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Game theories – many approaches as European firms tackle the City

Rising transactional activity has given European firms in the City renewed confidence but playing in London remains a tricky game.

In April 2014, Iberian leader Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira moved into empty London office space rented out by its French ally Gide Loyrette Nouel as part of the development of the firms’ referral alliance established two years previously. Located in London’s financial district at 125 Old Broad Street, Cuatrecasas was the third European law firm to take up space in the building, moving to the 14th floor; the previous year Italian practice Chiomenti had moved in one floor above after leaving its former offices in Mayfair.

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Links, A&O and HSF win roles on Sabadell’s £1.7bn TSB takeover

Less than a year after Lloyds floated TSB Bank, Linklaters, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) all secured instructions on its high-profile takeover by Spain’s Banco Sabadell.

Taxpayer-backed lender Lloyds Banking Group formalised the 340p-a-share offer in March and agreed to sell its 50% stake in TSB. The deal values TSB, which is already the UK’s seventh-largest retail bank with 4.5 million customers, at £1.7bn.

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Cross-border £1.1bn Liberty Living deal sees raft of firms pick up mandates

The trend of foreign money flowing into the UK real estate market continued last month. This time the investment came from Canada and saw a raft of Legal Business 100 and international law firms pick up advisory roles.

Nabarro, Clifford Chance (CC), Pinsent Masons, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Dechert and Canadian firm Stikeman Elliott won roles advising on the £1.1bn acquisition of UK student accommodation provider Liberty Living by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

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Deal watch: Corporate activity in March 2015

CC, LINKLATERS AND LATHAM & WATKINS WIN KEY ROLES ON PIRELLI TAKEOVER

Advised by Clifford Chance (CC), China National Chemical Corporation bought tyre-maker Pirelli in a $7.7bn deal. The Chinese company acquired a 26.2% stake from Camfin, which was advised by Chiomenti, while Lombardi Molinari Segni handled financing aspects and Linklaters advised fellow investor Long Term Investments. Latham & Watkins advised underwriters JP Morgan.

 

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Latham halves its offices in the Middle East

DWF picks Dubai for first international office and puts three-year growth plan in place

With just 35 lawyers spread across four offices, Latham & Watkins admitted last month it had made a mistake in how it launched in the Middle East in 2008, and told staff in Abu Dhabi and Doha that their offices will close by the end of the year with the firm using Dubai and Riyadh to service the region.

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Pinsents launches infra-focused Australia outpost

After much speculation, Pinsent Masons announced the launch of an infrastructure sector-focused practice in Melbourne and Sydney last month, with a formal opening planned for July.

The five-partner operation will be headed up by David Rennick, a former chief executive of Australian firm Maddocks, who had been analysing the local market for Pinsents since March 2014. He will be joined by partners Greg Campbell and Simela Karasavidis, who also come from Maddocks; as well as Michael Battye, a former Pinsents lawyer who set up QED Legal, a construction boutique in Adelaide; and Andrew Denton, a construction disputes partner at Pinsents who will relocate from its London office.

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Europe’s credit markets – the future is not where it used to be

Ashurst’s Mark Vickers and Helen Burton assess a seismic shift in Europe’s leveraged debt markets

For many participants in Europe’s leveraged market, 2014 on first impressions heralded something approaching a new normal. According to data from 3i, Debt Management, leverage debt issuance in 2014 reached a total of €150bn; leveraged loan issuance was €78.4bn, the highest volume since 2007; and European high yield had another record-breaking year with total issues of €72bn. The European CLO market performed similarly strongly, raising €14.5bn, the third-strongest year of issuance on record. But behind the semblance of a market re-asserting its momentum, a number of fundamental features are coming together to divert the market’s direction of travel. And these changes have potentially far-reaching implications for law firms engaged in the European leveraged landscape.

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The use of a Cyprus International Trust (CIT) as a business vehicle

Andri Tsangarou and Andrianna Solomonides of Kinanis LLC discuss a new use for the CIT.

The economic and business instability of recent years, stemming from the worldwide economic crisis as well as widespread uncertainty and increased national scrutiny, have changed the rules of the business game dramatically. The international investor is faced with the need to seek additional safeguards towards business assets, as well as the need to provide a stable and unimpeded environment against any internal or external threats.

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Why are there no lawyer-backed MDPs?

With the rise of multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs) receiving daily comment in the professional news, this is certainly a question worth asking.

Before adding my own observations to the debate, I should spell out what I am thinking about and what I am not.

For starters, I appreciate that much work of many solicitors’ firms in England and Wales falls outside the reserved areas. As a result, there is a sense in which many law firms are already MDPs. Similarly, I am not thinking about those alternative business structures (ABSs) that, in the course of providing retail legal services, offer ancillary, non-legal services, such as car hire, medical reports, etc.

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Game Over – Global London firms make winning moves as US players secure their breakthrough

2014 found US firms in London gaining even more ground. Legal Business’ 13th annual Global London survey charts the key players and winning moves as leading firms make their breakthrough.

A line of taxis wait patiently along Old Broad Street as White & Case’s partners exit the office one after the other apologising for the delay. In January 2015, the firm ran up a £12,000 waiting charge from Addison Lee because partners failed to come out on time as they were overrun with work, mainly M&A deals. There’s no doubt it has been a dynamic start to the year for many global firms in London. And following a strong 2014, many firms expect this level of activity to continue.

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The Third Wave – high stakes City deals for Akin and Cooley highlight changing tactics

With Akin Gump and Cooley securing multimillion-pound teams, a wave of new entrants to the City are re-writing the playbook for expansion in London. What is driving the new breed?

Sitting in the airport lounge at Fort Worth, Texas, flicking through magazines and eating stale sandwiches, 25 maintenance staff waited to board flights to London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. While they were less than thrilled to be spending their weekends rewiring computers, moving desks and changing security codes for a bunch of lawyers thousands of miles from home, the woman who sent them was jubilant, having just pulled off the deal that would reposition her law firm as a genuine international player.

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Trading Places – Israel’s tech-heavy legal market widens its global reach

Tel Aviv cityscape silhouette with circuitry reflection

Shimon Peres, the 91-year-old former Israeli president, may not be the most obvious social media fanatic. Yet in 2014 he opened an account on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Facebook, expressing his desire to interact directly with the Chinese people, including its younger generation. The nonagenarian quickly received over 50 million ‘likes’ on his Weibo page.

This symbolises a wider cultural and economic shift. For decades, Israel’s political elite has made much of the nation’s natural affinity with the US and the influential Jewish community there. That umbilical cord to the world’s most powerful nation that has fertilised Israel’s tech and start-up community remains intact. But in recent years, as western pressure and sanctions have been exerted on Israel over its conflict with Palestine, it has turned its sights to the East, where Asian jurisdictions have taken a less judgemental line on its political and military stance.

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Return of the black dog – Hard times return for Cyprus’ legal community

black dog howling at grungey Cyprus flag

Wind back 12 months and the mood from the Cypriot legal community was undeniably improving. The island was meeting the terms of its €10bn bailout from Europe, following near economic collapse in 2013; the discovery of gas reserves offshore looked particularly favourable; and even the Turkish and Cypriot halves of the country had begun reviving stalled peace talks with the aim of once and for all reuniting the island.

Once again, though less happily this time, what a difference a year makes. Twenty four months on from the EU-imposed haircut, a feeling of pessimism has returned to Cyprus – certainly among its legal elite.

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