Allen & Overy (A&O) and Slaughter and May have advised on the acquisition of British electronics company Premier Farnell by Swiss manufacturer Dätwyler for £615m.
A&O advised Leeds-based Premier Farnell, while Slaughters acted for Dätwyler on the transaction.
Announced in June, the deal sees London-listed Premier Farnell, which produces the Raspberry Pi single-board minicomputer, join the Swiss multinational. The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The Raspberry Pi has become the best-selling personal computer in the UK since its launch in 2012, having been developed as a teaching device for coders at schools and universities.
Dätwyler, which supplies engineering and industrial parts, confirmed the purchase, with investors receiving 165p per Premier Farnell share, an increase of more than 50% on the closing price the Friday ahead of the deal.
A&O’s team advising Premier Farnell was led by corporate partners Richard Browne and Annabelle Croker, with support from corporate partner Seth Jones, antitrust partner Alasdair Balfour, incentives partner Paul McCarthy, and employment partners Mark Mansell and Inge Vanderreken.
The Magic Circle firm has been a longstanding adviser to Premier Farnell since the 1990s and advised in 2013 on its £18m funding arrangement for its pension scheme. A&O has previously advised on major electronics deals, including German chemical group Merck’s £1.6bn takeover of Luxembourg-based AZ Electronic Materials also in 2013.
The Slaughters’ team acting on the deal included senior partner Steve Cooke, corporate partner Martin Hattrell and recently-promoted partner Murray Cox.
Partner Bertrand Louveaux also assisted on the deal, advising on competition aspects, while Ed Fife advised on financing and Jonathan Fenn acted on pensions.
With Britain voting to leave the EU in last month’s referendum, Croker predicted the M&A market would be increasingly challenging: ‘The electronics distribution market has been very tough and the M&A market more generally has had quite a slow start to the year. Despite a slight uptick in the lead up to the referendum, we expect the exit vote will have a depressing impact on the M&A market, at least in the short term.’
Following the result of the EU referendum, a Dätwyler spokesperson confirmed to Reuters the bid for Premier Farnell would be unaffected by Brexit.
matthew.field@legalease.co.uk