Filter This View

  • October 17, 2011 |

    Slaughters and Herbert Smith head up £5.2bn facilities takeover

    Slaughter and May and Herbert Smith have won lead roles on one of this year's largest M&A deals - the £5.2bn purchase of Danish facilities outsourcing firm ISS by UK security group G4S. The acquisition is set to make the Crawley-based security services provider the world's largest combined security and facilities service provider, with revenues of around £15.9bn.

    1 minute read

  • October 13, 2011 |

    CC adds partner to London high yield practice with Latham hire

    Clifford Chance (CC) has added a high yield finance partner in London office with the hire of Latham & Watkins senior associate Fabio Diminich. Diminich, who began his career as an associate with Weil Gothsal & Manges in Washington DC, joined CC earlier this week (10 October).

    1 minute read

  • October 12, 2011 |

    Ambitious but pressured - the global market reaches a crunch point

    The international market is going through a period of flux, as forces that have been bubbling away for years gradually twist the industry into different shapes. Looking at the results from this year's Global 100 gives some indication of how this is playing out, but the patterns are still far from set. There is a growing push for firms outside the top tier to achieve real scale fast – as typified by international moves from Norton Rose, Ashurst and Hogan Lovells. Certainly, there is an increasing premium being placed on scale. Whether articulated or not, a common aspiration among many major firms in the UK is to secure a good position in the global top 50 by revenue.

    1 minute read

  • October 10, 2011 |

    Linklaters set to boost Asia presence with transfer of senior corporate trio

    Linklaters has moved to bulk up its partner ranks in Asia with corporate heavyweight Matthew Middleditch among a senior trio set to relocate to the region. Middleditch will join the firm's Hong Kong office in January next year, while Amsterdam partner Peter Goes is set to join the Beijing office in early 2012 and Madrid partner Miles Curley will transfer to Singapore next summer.

    1 minute read

  • October 4, 2011 |

    US firms head up $3.9bn private equity buyout

    A trio of top US firms have taken lead roles on the $3.9bn (£2.5bn) private equity takeover of contract drug researcher Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD), reports The Am Law Daily. The US-based organisation is being acquired by the Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman after fielding offers from rival bidders including Blackstone Group and KKR.

    1 minute read

  • September 28, 2011 |

    US quartet lead on $1.6bn Asia tech deal

    Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, Goodwin Procter, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Debevoise & Plimpton have advised on a deal which has seen a consortium of investors offer $1.6bn (£1bn) for a stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, writes The Asian Lawyer. The consortium includes Silicon Valley private equity firm Silver Lake Technology Management, Moscow-based venture capital group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) Global, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and Yunfeng Capital, an investment group led by Alibaba founder and chief executive officer Jack Ma. If the consortium's tender offer is fully subscribed, the consortium will acquire slightly less than 5% of the company, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

    1 minute read

  • September 28, 2011 |

    Cracking China – has Mandarin become de rigueur for modern Asian counsel?

    For would-be new hires at several international law firms in China and Hong Kong, speaking Mandarin has come to be a strict and unyielding prerequisite. "Certainly from our point of view, hiring someone in Hong Kong without Chinese language speaking skills is a waste of time," says Antony Dapiran, a fluent Mandarin speaker and capital markets partner with Davis Polk & Wardwell in Hong Kong. "I honestly do not see how they can function, especially if they are dealing with capital markets work."

    1 minute read

  • September 23, 2011 |

    Wachtell and Jones Day lead on $18.4bn aircraft manufacturing buyout

    Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Jones Day have taken lead roles on the $18.4bn (£11.9bn) acquisition of aircraft equipment maker Goodrich by United Techonologies Corporation (UTC), a deal that marks the conglomerate's largest-ever acquisition, reports The Am Law Daily. UTC is being advised by longstanding outside counsel Wachtell on the deal, which will see it pay $127.50 (£83) per Goodrich share in cash to acquire the target company and assume $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in debt.

    1 minute read

  • September 23, 2011 |

    Clifford Chance moves to restock City funds team with Debevoise hire

    Clifford Chance (CC) has added a partner to its City funds capability with the hire of international counsel Gerard Saviola from the London office of US firm Debevoise & Plimpton. Saviola, who will join CC as a partner in the firm's private funds group, is US-qualified and advises mainly leveraged buyout funds, emerging markets funds and mezzanine funds, as well as a broad range of institutional investors in international investment funds and private equity acquisitions.

    1 minute read

  • September 15, 2011 |

    How the top international law firms stack up in Asia

    Clifford Chance: 366 lawyers across eight offices. Hong Kong - 138 lawyers including 32 partners, Singapore - 72 lawyers including 15 partners, Tokyo - 51 lawyers including nine partners, Shanghai - 22 lawyers including five partners, Beijing - 29 lawyers including six partners, Bangkok - 16 lawyers including two partners Sydney - 21 lawyers including seven partners Perth - 17 lawyers including seven partners Key deals include: • advising the underwriters on Prada's Hong Kong listing; • advising the underwriters on Glencore's dual listing in Hong Kong and London; and • advising the managers on Volkswagen's dim sum bond - the first by a German company.

    1 minute read