Linklaters landed its first mandate from private equity (PE) house BC Partners at the end of July, with PE partners Alex Woodward and Vincent Ponsonnaille leading on a $1.6bn deal for a majority stake in Israeli furniture makerKeter Plastic.
BC, which has traditionally usedDickson Minto, turned toLinklaters as it trumped rivals The Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners to acquire an 80% stake inKeter from the Sagol family. Woodward and Ponsonnaille worked alongside Linklaters finance partners Brian Gray and Kathryn Merryfield, and tax partner Édouard Chapellier.
Woodward faced off against former mentor Ian Bagshaw,White & Case PE co-head, for the first time since Bagshaw leftLinklaters for the US firm in 2013. Bagshaw, acting for the Sagol family, led a team that included PE partner Kenneth Barry, who joinedWhite & Case fromDebevoise & Plimpton late last year, finance partner Martin Forbes and tax partner Prabhu Narasimhan.
The investment comes as one of only a handful of PE deals worth more than $1bn struck in Europe since the Brexit vote, with activity having already slowed noticeably this year. Capital deployed by global PE houses into EMEA had already dropped by 65% to €14.8bn between 1 January and 15 March, according toS&P Global.
‘This was a fantastic transaction for our EMEA private equity practice, the sort of deal that does not come along very often, and a source of pride and inspiration for our team,’ said Bagshaw. ‘The deal represents a vote of confidence inKeter’s potential and in the Israeli economy and demonstrates the strength of our practice.’
TheBC instruction comes as part of a successful run of deals forLinklaters. Woodward, alongside corporate partner Tracey Lochhead, acted for buyout firmCerberus Capital Management on its $4.6bn acquisition in June ofGeneral Electric’s French consumer finance business, GE Money, and recent hire Ben Rodham ranLinklaters’ first PE deal for French housePAI Partners when it purchasedAtos Medical fromEQT Partners for €830m in May.
The firm was also instructed on two deals for longstanding clientApax Partners in July, as it acquired a German pharmaceutical company and three subsidiaries of a Spanish pharmaceutical group.