Both Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer scored lead roles on an attempt by South Africa’s Steinhoff International Holdings to take over British retailer Poundland. Steinhoff, a $22bn homeware and clothing conglomerate, made a bid to take over Poundland, which it already had a 23.26% stake in. At press time, Poundland had rejected Steinhoff’s initial bid, but Steinhoff upped its holding in the UK discount retailer to 23.52%.
Steinhoff already owns PEP, which sells discount clothing, footwear and homeware across 1,800 stores in Africa, as well as UK chain Harveys Furniture.
Linklaters M&A heavyweight Charlie Jacobs, who will succeed Robert Elliott as the firm’s senior partner in October, has been instructed by Steinhoff, which is part of Christo Wiese’s retail empire. Wiese, through his various investment vehicles and companies, is a longstanding client of Linklaters, and Jacobs in particular. The firm has benefited from Wiese-backed companies buying up UK retailers in the last two years. Linklaters private equity partner Alex Woodward led last year as Wiese’s private equity vehicle Brait purchased Virgin Active for £1.3bn and took a 90% stake in clothing retailer New Look in a £780m deal.
The Steinhoff mandate follows a string of high-profile instructions for Jacobs, who has been advising commodities giant Glencore on its ongoing plans to cut $10.2bn from its $30bn debt pile and landed a lead role last year on the world’s biggest brewing merger, advising SABMiller on its mammoth $107bn deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Freshfields partner Oliver Lazenby is advising Poundland. A rising star in the firm’s corporate department, Lazenby advised Poundland on its £55m acquisition of rival 99p Stores last year, while the firm was also chosen for Poundland’s initial public offering (IPO) back in 2014. The team for that mandate was led by corporate partners Mark Austin and Adrian Maguire.
Freshfields became Poundland’s go-to adviser through its relationship with private equity house Warburg Pincus, which owned the discount store before exiting through the IPO in 2014. It maintained a 15% stake in the business until that was sold to Steinhoff last month. As a result of the purchase, the UK Takeover Panel ordered Steinhoff to declare its interest in Poundland, resulting in a public statement confirming its interest in a takeover.
‘Through the IPO and the purchase of 99p Stores, we’ve built up a great relationship with Poundland and we were a natural choice for this instruction,’ said Lazenby.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk