Vodafone has turned to DLA Piper for its latest major M&A deal: the €7.2bn acquisition of Grupo Corporativo Ono, with Weil, Gotshal & Manges leading for the Spanish cable company’s principal shareholders.
Vodafone, which typically instructs Linklaters but last year selected Slaughter and May to advise on the $130bn disposal of its US group, whose principle asset is its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, turned to DLA’s Madrid-based group and sector co-managing director Juan Picon.
Weil Gotshal led by private equity partner Marco Compagnoni (pictured) took the lead advising Ono’s private equity shareholders: Providence Equity Partners, CCMP, THLee and Quadrangle on the sale, which is one of the largest in the European market for several years and was agreed against the backdrop of a well-advanced dual track initial public offering process.
Weil also advised the shareholders on tax matters led by Oliver Walker, with competition advice provided by Doug Nave.
Local Spanish advice was given by corporate partner Renata Mendana at Spanish firm Garrigues.
‘The market has been back for a few months. There are a number of people looking to do exits or exits with a twin agenda of an IPO, which is more common now,’ Compagnoni told Legal Business.
The deal also follows Vodafone’s €7.7bn acquisition of German cable TV company Kabel Deutschland in June last year, led by Linklaters and leading German firm Hengeler Mueller.
david.stevenson@legalease.co.uk