Legal Business

Travers Smith acts on latest Bridgepoint deal as Oasis sold to Bupa for £835m

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Travers Smith, White & Case and DLA Piper have landed roles advising Bridgepoint on its sale of Oasis Dental Care to Bupa, valuing the business at £835m.

Oasis is one of the largest dental companies in the UK, with 380 practices and 1,800 dentists. The company reported annual revenue of £277m for 2015/16. It was acquired by Bridgepoint in 2013 for £187m, with Linklaters acting for the private equity (PE) firm.

Travers advised longstanding client Bridgepoint on the deal for the dentistry company. Travers’ team was led by PE head Paul Dolman (pictured) with a team including competition partner Stephen Whitfield, commercial partner Richard Brown and regulatory partner Phil Bartram.

White & Case advised healthcare and insurance provider Bupa on the deal, while DLA Piper PE partner Tim Wright advised Oasis’s management.

White & Case’s team was led by John Cunningham and Ian Bagshaw in London, and included Mark Powell in Brussels as well as City partners  Victoria Landsbert, Stuart Willey, Colin Harley and Michael Wistow. The US firm also advised Bupa on its £325m acquisition of Polish healthcare provider LUXMED back in 2013.

Travers has advised on several of this year’s headline deals. Travers corporate head Spencer Summerfield acted for Micro Focus on its $8.8bn dollar acquisition by HP in September, while corporate finance head Neal Watson advised for Pinewood Studios on its £323m takeover in August.

PE specialists Travers has strengthened its grip on the upper reaches of the middle market, handling work for clients such Hellman & Friedman and 3i Group as well as Bridgepoint. However the firm lost rising star Helen Croke in May this year. Croke, who joins Travers’ former head of PE Phil Sanderson at Ropes & Gray, counted Bridgepoint as one of her main clients.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

For more on private equity deals, see ‘A private function – the in-house counsel making their way in the thrusting world of private equity’

Read more in: ‘The M&A Report – Private equity offers the clients for all seasons’

 

 

Legal Business

Another defection from Macfarlanes as competition head moves to White & Case

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In a rare move, White & Case has hired Macfarlanes competition and EU head Marc Israel after 15 years at the firm.

Formerly the leader of Macfarlanes cross-departmental competition litigation practice, Israel will join White & Case bringing his focus on M&A and private equity related non-contentious matters along with cartel, investigations and antitrust litigation.

While partner defections are rare from Macfarlanes, the loss is the second in recent months as the firm lost a partner in September to a US firm when financial services head David Berman agreed to join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Described by The Legal 500 as the ‘experienced’ and ‘practical’ head of a ‘remarkable’ team, Israel’s list of deals includes advising BATS Global Markets on its acquisition of Chi-X to create the largest pan-European equities trading platform, Virgin Group in connection with BSkyB’s acquisition of 18% of ITV and DC Thomson on its acquisition of Friends Reunited from ITV.

White & Case EMEA head of competition Mark Powell expects Israel’s appointment will provide ‘synergies between our competition, disputes and our M&A/private equity teams in London and across EMEA.’ He added: ‘Marc’s practice is an excellent fit for the firm and our clients, and his addition will strengthen our London capability.’

White & Case has been aggressively bulking up its City practice with plans to have more than 500 lawyers in London in four years as part of its 2020 strategy.

In October the firm brought in Clifford Chance corporate partner Patrick Sarch in what will be a significant loss for the Magic Circle firm. In the same month it was announced BNY Mellon’s EMEA regulatory head James Greig was joining White & Case’s financial services team. The US firm also added to its global tax practice in September with the addition of London-based Michael Wistow as co-head of the firm’s tax practice in EMEA from Berwin Leighton Paisner.

The firm has been aggressive outside the City as well, as it was revealed in September the US firm had taken a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia, launching two offices in Melbourne and Sydney.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

For more on competition practices in the City see: ‘Less bark, more bite – competition to the fore as tougher enforcement arrives’

Legal Business

Double hire for Dechert as White & Case PE player Allardice exits with K&E finance partner

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Dechert has strengthened its private equity and finance practices hiring White & Case‘s Ross Allardice and Kirkland & Ellis partner John Markland to boost its presence in the City.

Private equity partner Ross Allardice (pictured) joins from White & Case having moved from Kirkland in 2013. Recently, Allardice has advised HgCapital on its £200m acquisition of The Foundry from Carlyle. He also guided Mid Europa through its acquisition of Danube Foods Group BV and Clates Holding which had combined revenues of more than €400m in 2014. Other clients include Better Capital, Arle Capital, Nordic Capital and Rhone Capital.

Markland has been with Kirkland for 12 years after making the move from Weil, Gotshal & Manges and founded the firm’s European debt finance team. Markland has advised clients such as Palamon Capital Partners, Mid Europa Partners and Bain Capital.

Chair of Dechert’s London office management committee Camille Abousleiman said: ‘The London office is expanding and adding some very dynamic partners. With the addition of John and Ross as a team, we have significantly enhanced our private equity and global finance offerings both in London and on the continent.’

In August, the Philadelphia headquartered firm bolstered its finance team in the City with the hire of two DLA Piper partners, Philip Butler and David Miles. Miles was DLA’s head of debt finance in London while Butler was head of finance and projects, and global co-chair in the firm’s financial services sector. Going the other way, Dechert recently lost real estate partner Jeremy Trinder to Latham & Watkins in July this year.

Dechert posted global robust revenues growing 6% from $839.5m in 2014 to $890m in 2015 driven by strong growth in the firm’s litigation practice which was up 17%. The firm’s PEP also grew by 8.5% from $2.32m to $2.5m. The firm has 127 fee earners in the City, and its partnership ranks in London fell 9% to 39 partners in 2015.#

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

For more on Private Equity in the City see: ‘ABC – the brutally simple world of a private equity lawyer’


 

Legal Business

White & Case to act for Russian government in $12bn Pugachev arbitration

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White & Case has won a lucrative instruction to defend the Russian government on the $12bn arbitration case taken against it by Sergei Pugachev, a tycoon once dubbed ‘Putin’s banker.’

Founder of Moscow-headquartered Mezhprombank, Pugachev took the decision to sue Russia when his business empire was carved up after falling out of favour with the country’s president Vladimir Putin. He alleges that government investigations against the bank were constructed because of ‘political motivations’.

Russia will be represented in the $12bn arbitration, filed in September 2015, by a team at White & Case fielded by London and Moscow partner David Goldberg (pictured). The case is filed at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands on the basis of the France-Russia bilateral investment treaty.

Lazareff Le Bars is currently acting as counsel to Pugachev with partner Benoit Le Bars acting as lead counsel, having taken over from King & Spalding earlier this year.

Pugachev, who struck up a close friendship with Putin during his early years as president, was accused of embezzlement and fraud by Russian authorities and later fled to London after Mezhprombank collapsed.

An English court has since ordered Pugachev to give up his Russian and French passports and remain in the UK while the Russian government’s Deposit Insurance Agency case against him continues. Pugachev, who lives in Battersea with his socialite partner Alexandra Tolstoy, a descendent of the novelist Leo Tolstoy, has had his assets frozen.

Russian courts ruled that Pugachev along with several others should be held liable for the insolvency of Mezhprombank. They were ordered to pay nearly 75.6bn rubles in damages and Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in January this year.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson was acting for Pugachev in litigation brought in the English courts by the Deposit Insurance Agency but stopped after Pugachev could no longer pay for the work. The DIA was represented by Hogan Lovells with a team led by partner Michael Roberts.

sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

White & Case continues London investment by making a fifth of global promotions in the City

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White & Case has promoted 40 in an increased partnership round with eight made up in the City. This year’s bumper global round increased by 29% on the previous year when the firm made up 31, with eight made up in the City.

The New York-based firm introduced two each to its M&A practice and its commercial litigation practice in London with international arbitration, financial restructuring and insolvency, banking, project finance and the white collar practice all gaining one.

London promotions made up 20% of this year’s round, down slightly on last year’s 26%. EMEA took the lion’s share of promotion with 21 made up to partnership while 17 were taken on in the Americas and a modest two were promoted in the Asia Pacific region.

White & Case London head Oliver Brettle said: ‘We continue to have a strong cohort of talented lawyers who we look at individually. We look at the trajectory of the business and we feel promoting these partners is correct. If you look forward in time you can never be absolutely sure whether the trajectory of promotions will continue because we are always looking at the way the business is progressing and our capacity to promote further associates into partnership.’

The firm has been actively bulking up its London offering over the past month with the US firm picking up Clifford Chance’s global banks sector co-head Patrick Sarch, BNY Mellon’s EMEA regulatory head James Greig and Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Michael Wistow who will join as the firm’s co-head of its tax practice in EMEA.

The firm has also taken a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia, launching two offices in Melbourne and Sydney, Legal Business revealed in September.

White & Case has been aggressive in the City, aiming to have more than 500 lawyers in London in four years as part of its 2020 strategy. Revenue wise moved ahead of Latham & Watkins in 2015, with around £2m more in revenues with its London office posting revenues of £185m while Latham was behind at £183m.

Brettle (pictured) added: ‘We will continue to look at areas within the practice in London in which we feel there is either a need for further strengthening of the bench of existing talent or areas where we feel that through internal promotions and the like, we’re unable to satisfy client demand from existing partners.’

The promotions take effect from 1 January 2017.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Global promotions in full:

EMEA

London

Paul Brumpton – Global International Arbitration Practice

Katja Butler – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Amanda Cowell – Global Commercial Litigation Practice

Ben Davies – Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice

Joanna Dimmock – Global White Collar Practice

Emma Foster – Global Banking Practice

Gareth Hodder – Global Project Finance Practice

Jarlath McGurran – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Frankfurt

Rebecca Emory – Global Capital Markets Practice

Hendrik Röhricht – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Markus Stephanblome – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Paris

Grégoire Karila – Global Capital Markets Practice

Kirsten Odynski – Global International Arbitration Practice

Brussels – Muriel Alhadeff – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Milan – Leonardo Graffi – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Hamburg – Justus Herrlinger – our Global Antitrust Practice

Prague – Jan Linda – Global Banking Practice

Riyadh -Ivan Paskal – Global Project Finance Practice

Abu Dhabi – Luke Robottom – Global International Arbitration Practice

Warsaw – Michał Subocz – Global Commercial Litigation Practice

Madrid – Yoko Takagi – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

AMERICAS

New York

Raymond Azar – Global Project Finance Practice

Michael Deyong – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

Binoy Dharia – Global Banking Practice

Steven Gee – Global Tax Practice

Kim Haviv – Global Commercial Litigation Practice

Bibiana Jaimes – Global Capital Markets Practice

Thomas MacWright – Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice

Damien Nyer – Global International Arbitration Practice

Kerry O’Rourke Perri – Private Clients Group

Andrew Weisberg – Global Capital Markets Practice

Washington DC

John Donaldson – Global Antitrust Practice

Brody Greenwald – Global International Arbitration Practice

Jane Rueger – Global Project Finance Practice

Kristen Young – Global International Arbitration Practice

Silicon Valley

Heather Burke – Global Antitrust Practice

Eric Lancaster – Global Intellectual Property Practice

Boston – Kate Dyson – Global White Collar Practice

ASIA-PACIFIC

Hong Kong – Melody Chan – Global Commercial Litigation Practice

Tokyo – Seiji Matsuzoe – Global Banking Practice

Legal Business

White & Case makes major corporate play with Clifford Chance partner Sarch

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White & Case has continued its rapid expansion in London with the firm set to bring in Clifford Chance (CC) corporate partner Patrick Sarch, head of the Magic Circle firm’s global banks sector team.

Sarch advises on a broad range of matters including corporate finance, M&A, and takeover code issues.

A partner for ten years, Sarch has advised on a range of major deals including Barclays on its £6bn rights issue, EADS on its proposed €38bn merger with BAE Systems and Kraft Foods on its unsolicited £11.9bn takeover of Cadbury.

Yesterday (12 October) it was announced BNY Mellon’s EMEA regulatory head James Greig was joining White & Case’s financial services team. The US firm also added to its global tax practice last month with the addition of London-based Michael Wistow as co-head of the firm’s tax practice in EMEA from Berwin Leighton Paisner.

In further strategic moves, it was revealed in September the US firm had taken a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia, launching two offices in Melbourne and Sydney.

White & Case has been aggressive in the City, aiming to have more than 500 lawyers in London in four years as part of its 2020 strategy. By revenue it inched ahead of Latham & Watkins last year in 2015, with around £2m more in revenues. White & Case posted London revenue of £185m while Latham was behind at £183m.

Going the other way, CC benefited from the hire of Olswang’s co-head of life sciences Stephen Reese which was announced last month. 

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Middle East moves: Corporate heavyweight Steedman to exit White & Case

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Winston & Strawn has hired Middle East M&A heavyweight Campbell Steedman from White & Case to head up the firm’s practice in the region.

As well as being head of the firm’s Middle East office, Steedman is also responsible for M&A, ECM and corporate finance work across the Middle East, Indian sub-continent and sub-Saharan African regions.

Steedman has 25 years’ experience of working in emerging markets and was previously senior partner of Norton Rose legacy Middle East offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Having moved to White & Case after 13 years at Norton Rose in 2011, Steedman spent five years at the US firm. He has worked on corporate finance work across the Middle East, central Europe, Africa and India.

He takes on the role of Middle East managing partner just over a year after Winston & Strawn swooped for a series of mass hires. The firm launched in the Middle East in March 2015 with the appointment of Stephen Jurgenson from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman as part of a 15-lawyer hire from the firm. Winston & Strawn also added London-based energy and infrastructure partner James Simpson and New York-based projects head Jeffrey Stern.

Steedman was Norton Rose’s senior Middle East partner until 2011 when the firm suffered a series of departures with four exits from its Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices. Dominic Harvey and Jonathan Brufal both left for Vinson & Elkins and Anthony Pallett also left for Latham & Watkins that year.

Winston & Strawn’s latest financials saw the firm increase global turnover by 4% for 2015/16, up to $818.5m.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk

Read more on the region in: ‘Running on empty – how to survive in the Middle East in the era of cheap oil’

Legal Business

White & Case goes in-house for latest hire from BNY Mellon

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Ever-expanding White & Case has bulked up its London financial services team, taking on BNY Mellon’s EMEA regulatory head.

James Greig is also a member of the bank’s European operating committee and sat on a various senior risk and regulatory committees for BNY Mellon (International), the company’s London-based UK bank and The Bank of New York Mellon, the firm’s Brussels-based European bank.

Prior to his time at BNY Mellon, Greig was a partner in PwC’s financial services regulatory group in London. Greig made the move to PwC from New York where he was a partner at WilmerHale servicing clients on both buy-side and sell side.

White & Case head of global financial institutions advisory practice Kevin Petrasic described Greig as an ‘experienced and highly-regarded senior lawyer’ who would ‘help anchor our EMEA practice’ in the wake of the Brexit vote.

He added: ‘The volume and pace of regulatory change since the financial crash remains substantial, and we continue to experience strong and growing client demand for regulatory advice in the UK and EU across all areas of our practice, including capital markets, corporate, private equity, banking, M&A and restructuring matters.’

White & Case has expanded heavily in recent months with the firm taking on a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia, launching two offices in Melbourne and Sydney.

The US firm also added to its global tax practice last month with the addition of London-based Michael Wistow as co-head of the firm’s tax practice in EMEA from Berwin Leighton Paisner. His practice is focused on corporate, finance and real estate industry-based transactions and clients.

White & Case has been aggressive in the City, aiming to have more than 500 lawyers in London in four years as part of its 2020 strategy. By revenue it inched ahead of Latham & Watkins last year in 2015, with around £2m more in revenues. White & Case posted London revenue of £185m while Latham was behind at £183m.

madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

White & Case opens Australia practice with ten-partner project finance raid on HSF

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Simultaneous Melbourne and Sydney launches filled with former Freehills lawyers

White & Case is to open two offices in Australia with the hire of a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), and there are plans to continue growing in the country.

Legal Business

White & Case pulls off £20m team hire with HSF Asia project finance group

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US firm White & Case has landed a 10-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), led by the firm’s Asia head of finance Brendan Quinn, in one of the largest legal moves ever in the Asian market.

Melbourne-based Quinn has led the move of a large group of HSF lawyers switching over to White & Case as the US firm accelerates its growth in Asia.

Big-billing HSF partners in Melbourne including Andrew Clark, Josh Sgro and Alan Rosengarten join Quinn in moving to White & Case.

A further four partners have resigned from HSF across Australia, with Tim Power, Jared Muller and Joanne Draper quitting in Melbourne and Joel Rennie exiting in Sydney to link up with White & Case. The US firm, which includes project finance as one of the pillars of its practice, has also hired Fergus Smith in Hong Kong and Matthew Osborne in Singapore.

A senior partner at White & Case has indicated that the team controls around £30m of business, while HSF put the figure at around £20m when calculated using an average of the team’s billings over three years.

The move sees White & Case launch in Australia, although Legal Business understands the US firm’s strategy is to add project finance capability in Asia, rather than to open in Australia and begin competing for local work.

Mark Rigotti and Sonya Leydecker, co-chief executives of HSF, said in a statement:

‘We can confirm the resignation of 10 partners from our Australian and Asian offices yesterday. We are disappointed at this decision. We continue to have a strong 100-partner infrastructure and projects practice globally. This is an exceptionally talented team of partners and lawyers, in Australia, Asia and around the world. Their focus is on our clients and delivering the top-quality work that those clients expect. When it comes to big-ticket, complex projects, project finance and infrastructure work, we remain the firm to beat in this market and globally.’

White & Case chairman Hugh Verrier said: ‘This move will cement our position as the leading law firm in project finance globally. It adds further strength to our client offering and underlines our commitment to providing the highest quality advice to our clients on a global basis.’

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk