M&A and Corporate Finance
Overview
With lawyers across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the U.S., our M&A and Corporate Finance team has the international presence to support our clients' business needs globally.
Whether their aim is growth through acquisitions or fundraisings, or the realization of value through a sale or restructuring, our clients want advisers that can help make deals happen. Established public and private companies, start-up ventures, as well as private equity, venture capital and other financial sponsors active in a wide variety of sectors rely on us as their partner in executing strategic transactions, ranging in value from a few million euros to several billion dollars.
Our M&A and Corporate Finance team is best known for advising on cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions, and disposals, as well as equity capital markets transactions, joint ventures, private equity backed acquisitions, spin-offs, split-offs, carve-outs and other strategic alternatives and corporate reorganizations. We also advise clients on corporate governance and approaches relating to tender offers, proxy contests and antitakeover planning.
We are frequently recognized for our market-leading position in U.S. M&A for annual completed transactions by deal count, as well as for mid-market transactions by deal count (Refinitiv, f.k.a. Thomson Reuters) and for our particular skill with middle market M&A in both the U.S. and UK (Legal 500, Chambers).
Our regular involvement in competitive auctions and our experience in acting on both sell-side and buy-side deals gives us a well-rounded, commercial perspective. Most of our client work is broader than any one jurisdiction, and our attorneys leverage the firm’s international platform to scale our services to our clients’ needs. Our multidisciplinary transaction teams draw on our firm's deep strength across relevant disciplines - such as tax, human resources, employee benefits, intellectual property, regulatory, antitrust, trade compliance, real estate and environmental - to ensure key risks and requirements are appropriately addressed in every transaction, whether the target is located in a single country or in dozens of countries across the globe.
Awards
Related Practice Areas
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Corporate
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Private Equity
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Debt Capital Markets
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Strategic Alternatives & Corporate Reorganization
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Securities & Corporate Governance
Experience
- Manzanita US Investments, along with Ben Gorham (founder) and another minority shareholder, on the sale of a majority stake in Byredo AB to Spanish conglomerate Puig.
- Farfetch on its investment of up to $200m in Neiman Marcus Group and strategic partnership which includes expanding Bergdorf Goodman’s E-Commerce capabilities and reach.
- Playtech plc on its sale of its financial trading division, Finalto, to Gopher Investments for US$250 million. We are also advising Playtech on its agreed takeover by ASX-listed Aristocrat Leisure for £2.1 billion. Playtech, listed on the London Stock Exchange, is a leading technology company in the gambling industry located in 24 countries.
- Kape Technologies plc on its US$936 million agreement to acquire premium consumer VPN business ExpressVPN and on Kape’s associated US$354 million underwritten equity offering and US$475 million loan facilities. Kape is an AIM-traded digital privacy and security software business.
- African Capital Alliance, an investment firm focusing on investments in sub-Saharan Africa and its Capital Alliance Private Equity Fund IV on the acquisition of a significant stake in Food Concepts PLC, the leading Quick Service Restaurant in West Africa from the ADP I Fund, managed by Development Partners International.
- Pyatt Broadmark Management, LLC and the related Broadmark real estate lending companies in connection with a series of mergers in which the Broadmark companies merged into subsidiaries of Trinity Merger Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, to form Broadmark Realty Capital Inc., a $1.5 billion publicly traded Maryland mortgage REIT.
- XBiotech Inc. in the sale to Janssen Biotech, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, of XBiotech’s True Human Antibody known as bermekimab.
- BCA Marketplace plc, a European used vehicle exchange owner and operator, in its sale to private equity firm TDR Capital LLP for £1.9bn.
- AEP Clean Energy Resources LLC in its purchase of Sempra Renewables LLC and its interests in 30 subsidiaries, 724 MW of wind generation and battery storage assets for $1.1 billion.
- ESCO Technologies Inc. in the sale of its Technical Packaging business segment, consisting of Thermoform Engineered Quality LLC, Plastique Ltd. and Plastique sp. z o.o., to Sonoco Plastics, Inc. and Sonoco Holdings, Inc., subsidiaries of Sonoco Products Company.
- Greencore Group plc, an Irish publicly traded international convenience food business, in the company’s $747.5 million acquisition of American privately held convenience food manufacturer Peacock Foods, and the subsequent sale of the unit for $1.087 billion.
- Secure Income REIT plc on the acquisition of two substantial portfolios of assets at a total cost of £436 million.
- Ixia, a publicly traded provider of network testing, visibility and security solutions, in the company’s $1.6 billion sale to publicly traded Keysight Technologies. We served as Ixia’s primary outside counsel for 20 years, from inception through growth to exit.
- Ancala Partners on two purchases of assets from the Kelda Water group. The first transaction involved the acquisition of a 1.5MW operational anaerobic digestion facility located in Millerhill, Edinburgh.
- Berry Global, Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of value-added plastic consumer packaging, in the company’s $2.45 billion acquisition of Avintiv Inc., a specialty healthcare materials manufacturer, from a multinational private equity firm.
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