Magic Circle firm acts alongside Slaughters and Maclays
With the asset management market tipped for further consolidation, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer scored a role alongside Slaughter and May and Maclay Murray & Spens on Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management’s £11bn merger in March.
In its first major deal for the investment manager, Freshfields advised with a team led by co-head of financial institutions Claire Wills and London head Julian Long. Global financial institutions partner David Rouch advised on regulatory aspects, while competition partner Martin McElwee acted on antitrust matters and Alice Greenwell advised on employment details.
Long-term adviser Maclays’ head of financial services Guy Norfolk also advised Aberdeen on the deal, which will create the UK’s largest fund manager with £660bn worth of assets under management.
Standard Life’s team on the transaction was led by group general counsel (GC) Rushad Abadan, supported by associate GC Sara De Busk and legal counsel Benjamin Brust. External counsel included a Slaughters team led by corporate finance partner Jonathan Marks, head of M&A Roland Turnill and corporate partner Paul Mudie.
Wills told Legal Business: ‘There is potential around the asset management sector. As well as Aberdeen, we acted for Henderson Group on its tie-up with Janus Capital Group towards the end of last year. It’s one of the areas where consolidation has been predicted because of the need for scale.’
This is also not the first time Slaughters has advised Standard Life on a deal opposite Freshfields and Maclays. Barclays turned to a Freshfields team, which included Wills in 2009 for its £226m acquisition of Standard Life’s banking arm, while Maclays advised Barclays on Scottish law matters. Slaughters acted for Standard Life.
Slaughters has also advised on Standard Life’s return of around £1.75bn to shareholders in 2015, its disposal of its Canadian business to The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company for £2.2bn and its acquisition of Ignis Asset Management for £390m.
Corporate partners Marks, Craig Cleaver and tax partner Gareth Miles are regular advisers to Standard Life.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk