Deal watch: Bakers and Slaughters drink in £3.1bn Horlicks acquisition as AJ Bell IPO yields dividends for Pinsents and Addleshaws

Posted on |
Deal watch: Bakers and Slaughters drink in £3.1bn Horlicks acquisition as AJ Bell IPO yields dividends for Pinsents and Addleshaws

As the market hunkers down for the festive season, GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) £3.1bn sale to Unilever of Horlicks has warmed the cockles of City teams from Baker McKenzie and Slaughter and May, while Pinsent Masons and Addleshaw Goddard have won key mandates on what is likely the year’s last big London listing.

The GSK deal sees it sell its malted drink brand Horlicks and other consumer healthcare nutrition brands to Unilever and includes the merger of listed GSK Consumer Healthcare India with Hindustan Unilever. GSK will also sell its 82% stake in GlaxoSmithKline Bangladesh in the deal, which is slated to complete by the end of next year. Continue reading “Deal watch: Bakers and Slaughters drink in £3.1bn Horlicks acquisition as AJ Bell IPO yields dividends for Pinsents and Addleshaws”

Deal watch: Slaughters and Kirkland drill into giant $12bn offshore plc merger as Travers and Eversheds maximise L&G’s pensions buy-out

Posted on |
Deal watch: Slaughters and Kirkland drill into giant $12bn offshore plc merger as Travers and Eversheds maximise L&G’s pensions buy-out

Slaughter and May and Kirkland & Ellis have led on the $12bn combination of UK Plc offshore drilling companies Ensco and Rowan Companies as Travers Smith and Eversheds Sutherland wrap up Legal & General’s £2.4bn buyout of Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan.

The drilling merger – an all-stock deal and a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangements – will see the shareholders of Ensco and Rowan own 60.5% and 39.5% respectively of the combined business. Continue reading “Deal watch: Slaughters and Kirkland drill into giant $12bn offshore plc merger as Travers and Eversheds maximise L&G’s pensions buy-out”

Deal round-up: Travers advises Shazam on Apple buyout as Freshfields and Norton Rose strike gold on $18bn mining merger

Posted on |
Deal round-up: Travers advises Shazam on Apple buyout as Freshfields and Norton Rose strike gold on $18bn mining merger

In the latest flurry of deals, Travers Smith has represented popular mobile app Shazam on its buyout by tech giant Apple, while a raft of international firms have benefitted from recent transactional activity.

Shazam, which was founded in 2002, is a song recognition app which can identify what music is playing via a phone’s inbuilt microphone. The deal for Shazam, reportedly worth $400m, will see Apple offer the app on an ad-free basis for all users. Continue reading “Deal round-up: Travers advises Shazam on Apple buyout as Freshfields and Norton Rose strike gold on $18bn mining merger”

Deal watch: Rich pickings for Links as insurance and education sectors mark busy autumn for City elite

Posted on |
Deal watch: Rich pickings for Links as insurance and education sectors mark busy autumn for City elite

It has been a busy few weeks for Linklaters’ transactional team as the firm scooped spots on two multibillion pound deals, in the insurance and education sectors respectively.

Corporate partners James Inglis and Nick Rumsby joined Magic Circle rivals Clifford Chance (CC) and Slaughter and May as US insurance broker Marsh & McLennan agreed to acquire the entirety of UK listed rival Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) for £4.9bn. Continue reading “Deal watch: Rich pickings for Links as insurance and education sectors mark busy autumn for City elite”

Deal watch: City high-flyers land jumbo £4.4bn BA pension deal as Blackstone’s buying spree continues

Posted on |
Deal watch: City high-flyers land jumbo £4.4bn BA pension deal as Blackstone’s buying spree continues

City heavyweights Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (CC) and Eversheds Sutherland have landed key roles on Legal & General’s £4.4bn buy-in of the British Airways pension scheme as advisers cash in on a brace of Blackstone deals.

UK insurer Legal & General is taking on £4.4bn of historic pension liabilities relating to the Airways Pension Scheme (APS) in a bulk annuity designed to reduce risk in the scheme. Continue reading “Deal watch: City high-flyers land jumbo £4.4bn BA pension deal as Blackstone’s buying spree continues”

Deal watch: Magic Circle scoops £300m Funding Circle IPO as Linklaters advises on £2bn wind farm financing

Posted on |
Deal watch: Magic Circle scoops £300m Funding Circle IPO as Linklaters advises on £2bn wind farm financing

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters have scored lead mandates on the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of small business lender Funding Circle, while Linklaters advised on the £2bn financing of the Triton Knoll wind farm.

London-based start-up Funding Circle, which provides a loan platform for SMEs in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands, announced today (3 September) its intention to issue at least 25% of its share capital to raise around £300m. Continue reading “Deal watch: Magic Circle scoops £300m Funding Circle IPO as Linklaters advises on £2bn wind farm financing”

Magic Circle duo goes full throttle on Aston Martin’s landmark London listing

Posted on |
Magic Circle duo goes full throttle on Aston Martin’s landmark London listing

City heavyweights Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken the driving seat on the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of Aston Martin, a float reportedly valuing the luxury car maker at £5bn.

Slaughters won the mandate advising Aston Martin with a corporate team led by Nilufer von Bismarck and including Roland Turnill and Filippo de Falco. The firm is working alongside Aston Martin’s general counsel (GC) Michael Marecki, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is advising on US law, led by London-based partner Gil Strauss. Continue reading “Magic Circle duo goes full throttle on Aston Martin’s landmark London listing”

Deal watch: Eversheds Sutherland races to advise Formula 1 team on administration as Cooley acts on $126.8m tech IPO

Posted on |
Deal watch: Eversheds Sutherland races to advise Formula 1 team on administration as Cooley acts on $126.8m tech IPO

Eversheds Sutherland has landed a major role on the administration of Formula 1 team Force India as Cooley advises a UK IT company on its $126.8m IPO and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) acts on a $388m Philippines agribusiness deal.

Finance partner Jamie Leader led Eversheds as it represented Brockstone Limited, the services company linked to Force India driver Sergio Pérez, on a High Court administration application intended to safeguard the jobs of 400 employees. Continue reading “Deal watch: Eversheds Sutherland races to advise Formula 1 team on administration as Cooley acts on $126.8m tech IPO”

Dealwatch: Europe provides rich pickings for City firms and US giants

Posted on |
Dealwatch: Europe provides rich pickings for City firms and US giants
  • 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.

Continue reading “Dealwatch: Europe provides rich pickings for City firms and US giants”

Deal Watch: International elite flock to $3.3bn Linde disposal as Paul Hastings hire secures 2nd deal for PE client

Posted on |
Deal Watch: International elite flock to $3.3bn Linde disposal as Paul Hastings hire secures 2nd deal for PE client

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters are leading on Linde’s $3.3bn Americas disposals, bringing the German gas group a step closer to its $83bn combination with Praxair.

The deal sees Freshfields advise a consortium of Messer Group, the German industrial gas manufacturer, and private equity house CVC Capital Partners as it acquired the bulk of Linde’s gas business in North America and individual business units in South America. The Freshfields team out of Germany was led by Kai Hasselbach in Munich and Stephan Waldhausen in Dusseldorf while its US team was led by partners Omar Pringle (M&A) and Paul Yde (antitrust). Continue reading “Deal Watch: International elite flock to $3.3bn Linde disposal as Paul Hastings hire secures 2nd deal for PE client”