Shell offers £47bn for BG Group
The proposed £47bn acquisition of BG Group by fellow energy major Shell saw a trio of Magic Circle firms land leading roles, as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) advising on what constitutes the largest UK-to-UK deal ever.
Slaughters is acting for Shell, supported by Cravath, Swaine & Moore on US corporate law and allied firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek on Dutch aspects of the deal. Corporate partners Roland Turnill, Hywel Davies and Rebecca Cousin are leading Slaughters’ team, which Turnill told Legal Business started ‘working in earnest’ on the transaction as far back as Christmas. Finance partner Matthew Tobin is also working on the deal alongside tax specialist Steve Edge, competition partners Bertrand Louveaux and Jordan Ellison and pensions and employment partners Jonathan Fenn and Roland Doughty.
Paul Sleurink is leading for De Brauw, while Cravath’s team is headed up by partners William Rogers and Richard Hall. Shell is fielding large in-house team on the deal, led by legal director Donny Ching and including company secretary Michiel Brandjes.
BG, meanwhile, is using Freshfields on the deal, with corporate partner Graham Watson and M&A partner Mark Rawlinson leading.
With relatively low oil prices, the highly publicised deal could spark a new wave of oil and gas consolidation, although the mood remains cautious. Turnill said: ‘As ever in that sector, assets and participations change hands all the time. I’m not sure you’ll necessarily see deals as big as this though. Conditions are promising, but there’s a natural cautiousness around M&A following the financial crisis, so there won’t be any knee-jerk reaction.’
A&O’s role sees London-based banking partner Sanjeev Dhuna head a team advising Bank of America Merrill Lynch as the mandated lead arranger and sole lender to Shell. Dhuna was more bullish on the chances for increased M&A in the sector, claiming that liquid debt markets and ‘piles of cash are giving rise to fertile landscapes for strategic combinations’.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk