Dealwatch: Global 100 firms share spoils on flurry of private equity and public M&A mandates
Legal Business
Slaughter and May is acting on the £1.3bn unsolicited bid for doorstep lender Provident Financial. Corporate head Andy Ryde (pictured) is joined by Paul Mudie in advising the bid from Non-Standard Finance. Provident, meanwhile, has enlisted Clifford Chance corporate partners Lee Coney and Mark Poulton.
Eversheds Sutherland fielded a team led by partner Aleen Gulvanessian on Dairy Crest’s £975m sale to Canadian dairy company Saputo. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted for the buyer, with energy and natural resources head Laurie McFadden and corporate partner Stephen Hewes at the helm. Ashurst advised Lazard as buy-side financial adviser.
Ashurst advised MedicX Fund on its primary takeover by Primary Health Properties (PHP) in a deal valued at approximately £393m. Corporate partners Tom Mercer and Tara Waters led for Ashurst, while CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang advised PHP on the deal with a team headed up by partners Glyn Taylor and Jack Shepherd.
Freshfields also secured a key mandate in France, with the firm’s Paris partner Alan Mason advising Cinven on its €800m acquisition of private higher education group INSEEC. Linklaters is advising seller Apax Partners, led by Paris corporate partner Fabrice de La Morandière.
Allen & Overy (A&O) joined Eversheds Sutherland on the €590m sale of Swedish chemical company Perstorp’s UK chemical division Capa to US rival Ingevity. A&O advised Perstorp on the sale with corporate partner Stephen Lloyd leading the team. Eversheds, meanwhile, advised Ingevity with a team led by corporate partner Nicola Brookes. Swedish leader Mannheimer Swartling provided local law advice to Perstorp.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is advising payment processor Worldpay on a proposed $43bn takeover offer by financial technology company FIS. The Skadden team advising Worldpay consists of New York partners Peter Atkins, David Ingles, Sven Mickisch, Joseph Penko and London-based partner Scott Hopkins. Willkie Farr & Gallagher was enlisted to advise FIS on the deal.