Over 100 lawyers involved as PE firm sells sport to Liberty Media
Just six months a partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Charles Hayes has led the firm’s team advising Formula One Group (F1) and CVC Capital Partners on the £6.4bn sale of F1 to Liberty Media Corporation, advised by Baker Botts.
Heading a team of around 100 Freshfields lawyers, Hayes worked closely with New York-based Valerie Ford Jacob, the firm’s global capital markets co-head, who acted on US aspects of the deal.
Hayes said: ‘We had our first call with the CVC team on 1 May. In many ways it was a logical continuation from the work that we’ve been doing with them these last few years and, in particular, since the 2012 IPO was put on hold. I’ve not worked so closely with our US team before and its client service and technical offerings are absolutely first class. It’s a very complex deal. There are a lot of moving parts in a high-profile environment with lots of different stakeholders, which adds a bit of energy and excitement.’
Hayes had also worked closely with the founder of Freshfields’ London private equity practice, Christopher Bown, before Bown’s move to CVC in 2013. CVC, which recently celebrated ten years since it first bought into the sport, had earlier turned to Hayes when it disposed of part of its shares in F1 to co-investors, including funds managed by Waddell & Reed, Ivy Investment Management Company, BlackRock and Norges Bank Investment Management. Freshfields also advised F1 on its planned IPO on the Singapore stock exchange in 2012.
Baker Botts has been enlisted to act for Liberty Media with a team including London corporate partner Derek Jones, who worked on the deal alongside partners based in the US and Brussels.
Meanwhile, Macfarlanes advised members of F1’s senior management through corporate head Ian Martin, M&A partner Stephen Drewitt and tax partner Peter Abbott. Weil, Gotshal & Manges and offshore firm Mourant Ozannes also advised Delta Topco, the Jersey parent company of the F1 business.