Legal Business

H1 2015/16: Steady as she goes – A&O attributes 4% revenue rise to London performance

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Financial results 2015/16 Allen & Overy
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Allen & Overy (A&O) has posted a 4% revenue increase for the first six months of the 2015/16 financial year. Turnover rose to £642m rising 3.6% from the same period last year.

According to the firm, growth was largely down to the London office performing particularly well, alongside ‘noteworthy performances’ in Australia, Belgium, China, Luxembourg, Russia, Singapore, Spain and France.

The firm’s corporate practice in particular saw a ‘surge in big-ticket M&A’ while the disputes team also performed well due to the ‘wave of regulatory investigations that has kept them busy showing no sign of abating’.

The Magic Circle firm has had a busy few months for initial public offerings (IPO), and recently advised on the prospective IPO of UK IT infrastructure provider Softcat, led by corporate partner James Roe and US securities partner Adam Wells. The firm also won a key role on retirement homebuilder McCarthy & Stone’s planned £1bn flotation, while other recent IPO mandates for A&O includes work on the listings for Equinity, Worldpay, Ibstock and Funding Circle.

Managing partner Wim Dejonghe said: ‘The first half has again demonstrated the balance and underlying resilience of our business model – the firm is well hedged and diversified. But more than anything these results highlight the determination and commitment of our people, at all levels within the firm, and it is this that ultimately drives A&O’s success.’

The numbers roll on from a year of respectable growth in 2014/15 when turnover reached £1.28bn up 4% from £1.23bn, despite top-line figures being slowed down because of currency fluctuations.

A&O is the first Magic Circle firm to release its first half figures, following Osborne Clarke, Fieldfisher and Fladgate.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

 

 

Legal Business

Six frontrunners emerge from pack in A&O management race

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Leadership Allen & Overy
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With next year set to be senior partner David Morley’s and global managing partner Wim Dejonghe’s final terms at Allen & Overy (A&O), three names have emerged as primary candidates to take over each role one month ahead of formal nominations.

Indications from within the firm are that the frontrunners for the senior partner role include global disputes head Tim House and global banking co-head Stephen Kensell, alongside Dejonghe, who has the option to seek election to succeed Morley as senior partner having completed two terms as global managing partner.

Replacing Dejonghe will likely be either co-head of global corporate Andrew Ballheimer, or the other global banking co-head, Andrew Trahair. Finance partner Michael Castle is the other key name to emerge, having also been cited as a strong potential candidate. He has experience of secured and unsecured, domestic and cross-border banking transactions including general lending, structured finance, margin lending, real estate finance, emerging markets and restructuring.

While these six names are the most likely candidates, other names may emerge when nominations formally open.

Both Morley and Dejonghe will step down from their current leadership roles next year, with Morley retiring from the firm after 36 years.

The firm’s small, partner-driven organising committee will oversee the election process and call for partners to put themselves forward next month, after which the nominees will be officially announced and the campaigning process will begin. The vote is not scheduled until early next year, followed by the handover period. The new leadership roles will take effect in May 2016.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

‘Unfulfilled client demand for alternative resourcing’: A&O launches Peerpoint in Asia

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Asia Allen & Overy
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Following the success of its high-end contract lawyer service Peerpoint in London, Allen & Overy (A&O) is now extending the model to Asia.

The Magic Circle firm said the move comes on the back of increasing client demand in Hong Kong over the past year.

As part of the launch, A&O has also appointed Tony Corcoran – an A&O alumnus – as managing director for Peerpoint in Asia Pacific, who will be based in Sydney. Corcoran has in-house experience across the region having served in senior roles at Lend Lease in Sydney, Dutch bank ABN AMRO, RBS in Hong Kong, and with Macquarie Group in Sydney.

He also established his own business focusing on start-ups targeting disruption of traditional business models in financial and legal services. His arrival comes one year after the firm appointed Richard Punt as Peerpoint CEO last year.

Corcoran’s aim will be to recruit lawyers for a regional Asia Pacific panel together with client business development.

Two years since launching, Peerpoint has grown to a panel of 100 consultants, which currently work with ten of A&O’s key banking clients after one year of launching Peerpoint’s client service.

Punt commented: ‘Tony’s passion for leading high performance teams and enthusiasm for smarter ways of delivering professional services makes him the perfect fit for Peerpoint. His extensive in-house experience in the financial services sector will be invaluable, as is his experience across the Australian, Hong Kong and London markets as we look to develop Peerpoint in Asia Pacific.

‘What the past year has shown is the level of unfulfilled client demand for alternative resourcing options. It has also highlighted the demand from an increasing number of highly-skilled lawyers for greater control over of how, where and when they work.’

The move follows DLA Piper’s announcement this week it has teamed up with Lawyers On Demand (LOD) to provide contract services for its clients. While DLA told Legal Business in June it wanted a flexible working unit similar to Peerpoint, it ditched those plans to launch its own contract lawyer arm in favour of the LOD deal.

Separately, this morning (13 November), six frontrunners emerged as strong potentials to takeover A&O c-suite next year.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

 

 

Legal Business

Dealwatch: Magic Circle firms lead on major City broking merger

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Corporate Allen & OveryAshurstClifford ChanceSimmons & Simmons
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Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy (A&O) are orchestrating a tie-up between two of the City’s most storied brokers, Icap and Tullett Prebon, as the market consolidates in response to low trading volumes and tougher regulations.

Icap, which was founded by Michael Spencer in 1986, is in talks to sell its traditional voice-broking business to rival Tullett Prebon. If the deal completes, it would be the second major shakeup in the industry this year, with Howard Lutnick’s New York firm BGC Partners winning a bidding war to pay £519m for GFI Group earlier this year.

Icap, which remained the largest interdealer broker in the world after BGC’s takeover of GFI, is in talks to transfer its global broking business to Tullett Prebon in a deal which would see Tullett Prebon issue shares to Icap’s investors to pay for it. The deal, which would make Icap a minority shareholder in the new company, is understood to be worth over £1bn and would see around 1,500 brokers move to Tullett Prebon.

The brokers have instructed Magic Circle law firms, with Clifford Chance advising Icap and A&O advising Tullett Prebon. A&O corporate partner Richard Hough is leading the advice to Tullett Prebon, acting opposite Clifford Chance’s Steven Fox, who was instructed by Icap.

Simmons & Simmons corporate partner Colin Bole is acting for Icap’s team of advisers JP Morgan and Evercore, while Ashurst duo Jonathan Parry and Dominic Ross were instructed by Tullett Prebon’s adviser Rothschild.

Interdealer brokers, which match buyers and sellers in currency, bond, share and other trades, have struggled with stricter regulation forcing banks to cut back on trading. Tullett Prebon cut 200 jobs in March in response to difficult market conditions and falling profits.

If Icap’s deal to offload its traditional broker business to Tullett goes through, the FTSE 250 company will be left as a technology-focused business made up of electronic broking and risk management services. Tullett Prebon, meanwhile, would replace Icap as the world’s largest interdealer broker.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Worldpay IPO to spark London fintech boom after £2.2bn float

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Corporate Allen & Overy
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Dealmakers predict end-of-season deal flourish in Q4

London’s goal of becoming a hub for tech companies to list took a further step in October, after payment processing company Worldpay floated on the London Stock Exchange in the largest City listing so far this year.

Allen & Overy (A&O), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Weil, Gotshal & Manges all scored roles as City-headquartered Worldpay sold 51% of its outstanding shares, raising £2.16bn with Worldpay receiving about £947.8m.

Legal Business

Moving on: homebuilder McCarthy & Stone turns to A&O for its November listing

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Corporate Allen & OveryFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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Regular counsel Freshfields advises lead arrangers on £1bn IPO

Retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone has selected Allen & Overy (A&O) to advise on its £1bn initial public offering (IPO) as it prepares this month to return to public ownership almost a decade after the developer was taken private.

McCarthy & Stone’s appointment of A&O is a move away from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which was listed as the developer’s solicitor in its most recent annual report in 2014. However, Freshfields already has a lead role on the float, acting for underwriters Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies International, with partner Mark Austin leading the team.

Legal Business

Game over: Debevoise, A&O and Fenwick & West lead on Candy Crush maker’s sale for $6bn

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Corporate Allen & OveryDebevoise & PlimptonFenwick & West
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Debevoise & Plimpton, Allen & Overy (A&O) and Fenwick & West have scored roles advising video game maker Activision Blizzard on the acquisition of Candy Crush creator King Digital Entertainment for $5.9bn – one of the largest deals in the fast-growing interactive entertainment industry.

The acquisition will create one of the world’s largest entertainment networks with over a half a billion monthly active users in 196 countries.

Under the agreement, ABS Partners – a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard – will acquire all of the outstanding shares of King Digital at $18 per share, for a total equity value of $5.9bn.

The acquisition is expected to generate over $36bn of revenue by the end of 2015 and grow by over 50% in the next four years.

Debevoise was lead M&A counsel for the deal with a team led out of New York by its corporate chair Jeffrey Rosen and co-head of M&A William Regner. Finance partner David Brittenham, benefits chair Lawrence Cagney, tax partner Gary Friedman and corporate partners Paul Rodel and Jeffrey Ross also worked on the transaction.

Activision Blizzard turned to A&O for advice on competition aspects in the EU, led by antitrust partner Dirk Arts, alongside Irish firm Mason Hayes & Curran.

Dublin-based King instructed Irish firm William Fry with US advice from tech firm Fenwick & West.

The deal is the latest in a series of tech deals for A&O, which recently won a role advising IT company CSC on its merger with US public sector tech outfit SRA to create a company with $5.5bn in revenues and billed as the ‘largest pure-play IT services provider serving the US government sector.’

A&O has been active in the financial technology arena, working on a raft of IPOs including Worldpay, Equiniti, Funding Circle and Softcat.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Dealwatch: KWM, A&O and Dentons advise as China and Germany sign historic stock exchange JV

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Corporate Allen & OveryDentonsKing & Wood Mallesons
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King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and Dentons have leveraged their considerable Asia platforms to secure roles as lead advisers on a landmark agreement between Germany and China to create the first dedicated platform for yuan-denominated trading outside China.

The two firms, along with Allen & Overy, executed a first-of-its-kind deal between two Chinese exchanges to establish a new trading venture with Germany’s Deutsche Börse.

KWM’s Frankfurt-based Christian Cornett and Beijing-based Xu Ping teamed up to advise the Shanghai Stock Exchange on its agreement with both Deutsche Börse and the China Financial Futures Exchange. The agreement has created the China Europe International Exchange (CEINEX), which will become the first dedicated trading platform for renminbi transactions outside of China and marks an important milestone in the internationalisation of the renminbi and for China’s capital markets.

Dentons was instructed by China Financial Futures Exchange on the deal, with corporate partner Hermann Meller – who splits his time between Berlin and Shanghai – leading the team.

Frankfurt-based M&A partner Hartmut Krause led Allen & Overy’s legal advice to Deutsche Börse, which leaned heavily on its own in-house team of Tobias Gressinger and Holger Klafs to pull off the new venture.

CEINEX will offer Chinese investment products, including exchange-traded funds and bonds to international investors. The first of these bonds and exchange traded funds in renminbi will be traded on the new platform from 18 November. The agreement comes just one week after Chinese president Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK, with Frankfurt having stolen a march on the City in connecting its exchanges to China.

KWM’s Cornett said: ‘The China-Europe stock market deal opens significant new opportunities for investment in China, which is a trend that we in Germany have seen rapidly evolve over recent years. This new platform will help to develop key offshore RMB products, which is crucial to further capital flows between the two countries.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Allen & Overy and Ashurst team up for Softcat listing

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Corporate Allen & OveryAshurst
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In another busy week for initial public offerings (IPO), Allen & Overy (A&O) and Ashurst have won key roles on the prospective IPO of UK IT infrastructure provider Softcat.

Ashurst is acting as English and US legal adviser to the fast growing company, thought to be valued at around £500m, ahead of its float on the stock exchange next month. Nicholas Holmes, head of Ashurst’s equity capital markets practice is leading, with US partner Jennifer Schneck acting on the US securities side.

A&O is advising joint sponsors, joint global co-ordinators and joint bookrunners Credit Suisse and Jefferies on the transaction. The team at A&O is jointly led by corporate partner James Roe and US securities partner Adam Wells.

Ernst & Young is also acting as reporting accountants for Softcat, which hopes to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK index series by March 2016. The funds will be raised through the sale of shares currently held by the founders, senior members of the management team and some current and former employees.

Last week also saw A&O win a key role on retirement homebuilder McCarthy & Stone’s planned £1bn flotation.

An A&O team led by corporate partner Richard Browne with support from equity capital markets partner James Roe and US securities partner Adam Wells is advising McCarthy & Stone, which wants to return to the stock market almost a decade after it was taken private.

Underwriters Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies International are being advised by Freshfields, with partner Mark Austin leading the team.

Other recent IPO mandates for A&O includes work on the listings for Equinity, Worldpay, Ibstock and Funding Circle.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Freshfields, Allen & Overy lay foundations for McCarthy & Stone’s £1bn flotation

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Corporate Allen & OveryFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
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Magic circle firms Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken lead roles on retirement homebuilder McCarthy & Stone’s plans to float on the London stock exchange.

An Allen & Overy team led by corporate partner Richard Browne with support from equity capital markets partner James Roe and US securities partner Adam Wells is advising McCarthy & Stone, which wants to return to the stock market almost a decade after it was taken private.

McCarthy & Stone wants to sell at least a quarter of its business to raise £70m for land business, which would value the company at about £1bn.

Underwriters Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies International are being advised by Freshfields, with partner Mark Austin leading a team.

McCarthy & Stone chief executive Clive Fenton said: ‘There is a structural under-supply of specialist retirement housing in the UK and McCarthy & Stone has the expertise, track record and financial strength to address this need.’

‘Listing on the London Stock Exchange will provide the ideal foundation for the Group to move to the next stage of its development and the Board and I will continue to work hard to deliver on our ambitious growth plans,’ he added.

For Allen & Overy, the appointment is the latest in a string of IPO mandates for the firm which last month picked up new client Ibstock, advising on the brick maker’s plans £1bn listing. Allen & Overy as well as Freshfields also acted on the London stock exchange’s biggest float this year, of payments company Worldpay.

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk