White & Case has again advised Polish telecoms group Play Communications and its shareholders, Novator and Olympia, this time on Play’s €1bn initial public offering (IPO) on the Warsaw stock exchange.
The IPO, which is the largest in the telecommunications sector in the past two years, values Poland’s second biggest mobile network operator Play at €4bn. Continue reading “‘Exciting growth journey’: White & Case advises Polish telecoms company Play on €1bn IPO”
Crisis is an overused term, worn out by endless repetition. For most European economies, it has meant a period of low or stagnant growth over the last decade and, in some cases, a year or two of negative GDP eventually followed by a welcome recovery. For Cyprus, however, the word has had even greater potency: between 2008 and 2015, GDP per capita declined by roughly 30%. On top of the global 2008-09 recession, Cyprus had its own domestic banking crisis in 2012-13, precipitated by the eurozone collapse. This led to a downgrade of its bond credit rating to junk status and a €10bn bailout programme from the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
It would be all too easy to dismiss Cyprus based on this performance – except that the island’s economy is experiencing a belated rebound. And what that means for investors in the medium term is significant. Despite financial services activity continuing to have a negative effect on the economy, latest GDP figures show a healthy 3% growth, which ‘surpasses all expectations’, according to finance minister Harris Georgiades. Continue reading “A new hope for Cyprus’s recession-battered lawyers”
Compiling our second annual Euro Elite report this month reminded me of when the late Rodrigo Uría, then managing partner of Spanish leader Uría Menéndez, recounted how he ended a heated meeting with Linklaters’ irascible former managing partner Terence Kyle by pointing out the armed guards at the entrance to his firm’s Madrid office. Back in the late 1990s, the UK elite was desperate to get into Europe. Continue reading “Comment: Royaume-Uni, nil points – why the true Eurovision is independence”
Compiling our second annual Euro Elite report this month reminded me of when the late Rodrigo Uría, then managing partner of Spanish leader Uría Menéndez, recounted how he ended a heated meeting with Linklaters’ irascible former managing partner Terence Kyle by pointing out the armed guards at the entrance to his firm’s Madrid office. Back in the late 1990s, the UK elite was desperate to get into Europe. Emotions ran high.
With Brexit, the UK now wants out (the legal profession less so). But in the Continental market you could argue the English firms have been in withdrawal mode for years. Although the buccaneering expansion across the region in the 1990s and early 2000s means firms with Anglo-Saxon origin are ubiquitous, few dominate. With the exception of France, where the locals have potent competition, and the Netherlands, where Allen & Overy became a major force (by force), Global 100 firms rarely compete at the top level. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is a leader in Germany, but by virtue of the only merger of equals between a European and an English firm, and even it is currently looking to strip down its local practice to bolster profitability. The Magic Circle has been on some level of modest reversal in Germany for a decade now.
Continue reading “Royaume-Uni, nil points: why the true Eurovision is independence”
Ella Marshall and Jonathan Armstrong assess the latest EMEA rankings from The Legal 500
The market continues to evolve in Europe’s key heartlands, as a band of expansive globalised firms spread out their tentacles, while another grouping of more transactionally-driven players strip down their businesses with an eye on profitability. Following the recent publication of The Legal 500 Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) 2017 edition, we look at the winners and losers among major international law firms this year.
DLA Piper, Latham & Watkins and Legal Business Euro Elite leader Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners all picked up mandates as Italian infrastructure company Atlantia launched a €16.3bn bid to acquire its Spanish rival Abertis.
The offer comprised an all-cash bid that values Abertis at €16.50 per share or a share alternative structure. The merger will be the largest foreign acquisition by an Italian company since utility company Enel bought Spain’s Endesa in 2007 and would create the world’s biggest operator of toll roads.
For many, 2016 was a year that threatened to halt the forces of globalisation. Anxieties over the global economy, particularly in China, and falling energy prices gave way to political shocks delivered by voters in the shape of Brexit and President Trump. From this maelstrom, Europe emerged in relatively good shape. As did its independent law firms.
Legal Business‘ Euro Elite comprises independent law firms based in more than 40 European jurisdictions, rather than the local offices of international firms.
To compile the 100 firms featured in this report Legal Business analysed more than 150 of the largest law firms in Europe by the number of lawyers, as well as more than 150 of the top-ranking firms in the current edition of The Legal 500 EMEA. A combined score was given for the size of the firm and its The Legal 500 rankings, providing a qualitative as well as a quantitative analysis. The 100 firms with the highest combined score make The Euro Elite. Continue reading “The Euro Elite Methodology”
