Corporate Team of the Year
For this award, consideration will be given to mergers and acquisitions work, as well as disposals, joint ventures and equity capital markets listings. It is not the value of the deal that will concern judges as much as evidence of outstanding transactional advice and commitment to the client in the context of one exceptional deal.
2019 Winner
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Tony Downes, Nigel Stacey
Advising William Hill on its entry into a US partnership with Eldorado Resorts for the operation of sports betting at all Eldorado licensed-casinos throughout the US. This was a groundbreaking and high-pressure transaction for William Hill entering into newly liberalised, highly regulated markets.
Shortlisted
Herbert Smith Freehills - HIGHLY COMMENDED
Mark Bardell, Stephen Wilkinson
Advising Sky on the competitive takeover process that saw Comcast acquire the company for £30bn. This followed a rarely seen competitive auction between rival bidders Comcast and 21st Century Fox, which was overseen by the Takeover Panel, while the bidding for Fox assets in the US added an extra layer of complexity.
Allen & Overy
George Knighton
Advising Virgin Money on its £1.7bn acquisition by CYBG, the owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, creating the UK’s sixth-largest bank, and the first true national competitor of scale to the large incumbent banks.
Baker McKenzie
Helen Bradley, Melanie Howard
Advising Alawwal Bank on its $5bn merger with the Saudi British Bank. This share-for-share deal is one of the largest mergers between two listed companies in the Middle East, and it resulted in the creation of Saudi Arabia’s third largest bank, with assets of around $70bn.
Clifford Chance
David Pudge
Advising CYBG, the owner of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, on the £1.7bn acquisition of the LSE-listed Virgin Money. The all-share takeover is also the largest UK banking deal of the past decade, and involved an exclusive and perpetual brand licence agreement with Virgin Group Holdings, itself a major shareholder in Virgin Money, to continue using the Virgin Money brand.
Dechert
John Markland
Advising South Korea’s SK hynix, the single largest investor in the $18bn takeover of Toshiba’s memory chip unit business. A novel structure was required as for regulatory reasons SK hynix had to accept restrictions on equity ownership for ten years and be firewalled from accessing proprietary Toshiba information.
King & Spalding
William Charnley
Advising Life Company Consolidation Group on its landmark £1.8bn acquisition of Equitable Life, the world’s oldest mutual insurer. The deal, which involved transferring 400,000 policyholders to LCCG’s subsidiary, Reliance Life, raised a host of complex corporate, insurance and regulatory issues.