Wall Street elite go head to head in largest ever Chinese acquisition

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Continued interest in European assets by Chinese investors peaked last month, as Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Davis Polk & Wardwell landed key roles on China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina)’s $43bn bid for Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta – in what will be the largest-ever acquisition by a Chinese firm.

Simpson Thacher advised state-owned ChemChina on M&A, acquisition finance and regulation with a team led by partners Alan Klein, Shaolin Luo, Chris May and Sinead O’Shea, alongside Swiss corporate leader Homburger. Davis Polk and another top-tier Swiss player, Bär & Karrer, acted for Syngenta. Davis Polk’s team included partners Louis Goldberg and Oliver Smith, with John Reynolds providing regulatory advice; Ronan Harty and Jon Leibowitz advising on competition law; and Avishai Shachar advising on tax.

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Beneficial ownership in Swiss PE acquisitions

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Bär & Karrer’s Christoph Neeracher and Luca Jagmetti advise on the new rules.

As part of a new Swiss legislation aimed at preventing money laundering and tax evasion, any entity acquiring 25% or more of a non-listed Swiss company must inform the latter regarding the acquiring entity’s beneficial owner and update such information in case of changes.

In standard private equity structures, the administrative burden of the new legislation can be minimised by implementing a practicable solution compliant with the rules. As typically the general partner (GP) takes the relevant decisions regarding the fund and its portfolio companies, the individuals controlling the GP (respectively controlling the ultimate shareholder of the GP) should be disclosed as beneficial owners. If such individuals cannot be determined, the top executive officer (chair or chief executive) of the GP, or respectively of its ultimate shareholder, may be disclosed.

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The Last Word: Deal perspectives

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With global M&A passing the $5trn mark in 2015, we ask the City’s leading corporate players if last year’s deal boom will carry on through 2016


WALKING THE TALK

‘We expect to see a resurgence in cross-border activity, which we saw in 2015 to a great extent. It’s always a question of whether or not the mega-deals will continue and the middle market typically follows. Some industry sectors we expect to be active like 2015, such as life sciences and energy. Disruption in the market these past few weeks has not gone unnoticed, but going into the year, there’s lots of activity and people talking.’

David Gibbons, global head of corporate, Hogan Lovells

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Slaughter and May wins main corporate adviser role as John Lewis Partnership cuts legal panel to four

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High Street retailer John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has cut its external legal panel to just four firms comprising Slaughter and May, Burges Salmon, Dentons and Eversheds, naming Slaughter and May as its main corporate adviser, following a review of its existing arrangements.

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Dentons hires former BLP corporate chief Collins as it targets cross-border deal work

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In tandem with its significant global expansion this year, Dentons is targeting greater volumes of cross-border deal work and has hired Berwin Leighton Paisner’s former corporate chief David Collins to head its global M&A push.

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City firms line up on £13bn sale of Northern Rock mortgages

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Linklaters, Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Hogan Lovells landed major roles in November advising on the government’s record-breaking £13bn sale of former Northern Rock mortgages, acquired during the financial crisis.

In what was the largest-ever financial asset sale by a government in Europe, the mortgages originally owned by Northern Rock were sold by the Treasury-owned UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) – set up to look after the mortgages nationalised when Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley ran into difficulty in 2008 – to Cerberus Capital Management.

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