Ten years after acquiring Pret A Manger in a deal worth £350m, private equity house Bridgepoint is selling it for more than four times its original investment and providing City firms with big mandates.
Luxembourg-headquartered JAB Holding Company, an investment firm owned by Germany’s Reimann family, is to buy the food chain for £1.5bn. Continue reading “Rich pickings for Travers Smith and Freshfields as Bridgepoint cashes in on Pret”
Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have landed pivotal roles on a $13bn deal which sees GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) acquire the remaining 36.5% stake in its consumer healthcare joint venture with fellow pharma giant Novartis.
Slaughters is advising GSK with a team comprising corporate partners Simon Nicholls and David Johnson, alongside tax specialist Dominic Robertson, competition partner Bertrand Louveaux, and finance partners Guy O’Keefe and Oliver Storey. Meanwhile Freshfields is advising Novartis, fielding a team led by corporate partners Julian Long and Jennifer Bethlehem, accompanied by tax partner Paul Davison and antitrust partner Rod Carlton. The in-house legal team at GSK was led by senior vice president and head of legal corporate functions Chip Cale, and associate general counsel Antony Braithwaite. Continue reading “Magic Circle duo secure key mandates as Novartis sells its €13bn stake to GSK”
Continue reading “Dealwatch: Transactional teams move into gear in strong spring showing”
Magic Circle firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May have rejuvenated longstanding client relationships to win lead roles on Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis’ $13bn sale to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of its minority stake in their consumer healthcare joint venture.
The deal, announced on today (27 March), sees London-listed GSK buy the 36.5% stake in the joint venture it didn’t already own from Novartis to assume full control of the business. Continue reading “Deal watch: Magic Circle gets clean bill to lead on $13bn GSK healthcare takeover as Addleshaw ties up JD Sports US acquisition”
After a turbulent period outside the deal rooms for some of the world’s largest corporate firms, Latham & Watkins and Baker McKenzie have won key corporate mandates while Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) landed a main market IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Latham has taken on a significant advisory role for Telenor as it agreed to sell its assets in Central and Eastern Europe to PPF Group for €2.8bn. The deal includes Telenor’s wholly-owned mobile operations in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia, and the technology service provider Telenor Common Operation. Latham fielded a team led by London partner Robbie McLaren. The key mandate will be a welcome relief for Latham, in a week where the firm was faced with fallout from Bill Voge’s shock resignation while Kirkland & Ellis passed it to became world’s highest-grossing law firm. Continue reading “Deal watch: Latham, Baker McKenzie and HSF return to dealmaking as Pinsents keeps it local”
A group of elite firms both sides of the Atlantic, including Macfarlanes and Slaughter and May, face off as British engineering giant GKN has agreed to a $6.1bn merger of its automotive business with US-based car parts supplier Dana.
In a deal that will create one of the world’s largest auto parts providers, Macfarlanes’ corporate partners Graham Gibb and Richard Burrows acted for Dana as it announced today (9 March) that its shareholders will get a 53% stake in GKN. Continue reading “Deal watch: Global 100 elite line-up on $6bn GKN-Dana transatlantic union”
Insolvency professionals have long been predicting a wave of trouble would hit the beleaguered UK high street and it has come to pass with Kirkland & Ellis and Eversheds Sutherland securing lead roles on the collapses this week of Toys R Us and Maplin.
Toys R Us announced today (28 February) that its domestic business was going into administration following a failed attempts to secure a new buyer for the UK’s largest toy retailer after sluggish trading hit the industry over the 2017 festive season. Continue reading “Deal Watch: Kirkland and Eversheds lead as Toys R Us and Maplin collapse following bleak Xmas for retailers”
Broadcasting giant Comcast has instructed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Davis Polk & Wardwell as it looks to trounce an existing offer for Sky from Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox.
Philadelphia-headquartered Comcast said in a statement today (27 February) that its ‘superior cash proposal of £12.50 per share represents a 16% increase in value over the existing 21st Century Fox offer for Sky’. Continue reading “Freshfields and Davis Polk win roles as Comcast eyes Sky with ‘superior’ £22bn bid”
As January draws to a close the deal market continues its robust run, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett leading the advisers on Blackstone’s headline-grabbing Thomson Reuters carve-out while City leaders deploy for Informa’s £3.9bn takeover of UBM.
Simpson, Dechert and Norton Rose Fulbright (NFR) won the lead mandates on a Blackstone-led bid to acquire the data analytics business of Thomson Reuters in a deal valued at $20bn. The bid, confirmed on Tuesday (30 January), is one of the largest ever private equity-backed acquisitions and Blackstone’s largest outside the real estate sector. Continue reading “Deal Watch: Simpson, CC and NRF line up as business data firms generates big ticket double”
