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  • October 13, 2008 | International Edition

    Magic circle firms head up £37bn bank bailout

    Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning around a 60% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of around 40% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

    1 minute read

  • October 13, 2008 |

    Magic circle firms head up £37bn bank bailout

    Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks. Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan. Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning around a 60% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of around 40% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

    1 minute read

  • October 13, 2008 |

    Simpson Thacher wins Treasury role on US bailout

    The US Treasury Department has chosen Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as its lead legal adviser on the $700bn (£405bn) bailout plan from among a group of six law firms that were asked to consider taking the job, reports The Am Law Daily. The interim assistant secretary for financial stability, Neel Kashkari, announced the selection of the elite US firm in a speech on Monday. The department contacted the six firms on Thursday to advise on the equity program's structuring. Only two of the firms responded. By Friday, Simpson Thacher had been chosen, Kashkari said. The firm began work immediately.

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 | International Edition

    Banking turmoil sparks wave of takeover work for firms

    The ongoing chaos in the banking sector is continuing to generate roles for firms on both sides of the Atlantic as Benelux financial services group Fortis, Italian bank UniCredit and US bank Wachovia join the ranks of financial institutions striking deals.Linklaters and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have taken the lead roles as France's BNP Paribas takes control of Fortis in a E14.5bn (£11.2bn) deal. A Linklaters team lead by Brussels corporate partners Jean-Marie Nelissen Grade and Eric Pottier is advising Fortis on the deal, which will see BNP Paribas take over the main banking and insurance operations. Cleary Gottlieb has taken the main role for BNP Paribas, fielding a team under Paris corporate partner Pierre-Yves Chabert.Allen & Overy (A&O) also scored a role on the transaction, advising the Dutch authorities. The takeover follows an attempt to bail out Fortis through a E11.2bn (£8.9bn) cash injection from the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Herbert Smith ally Stibbe won the lead role advising the Belgian Government as it took a minority stake in Fortis, as well as fellow bank Dexia, and advised on the sale of its stake in Fortis to BNP Paribas. Clifford Chance advised the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, on the purchase by the Dutch Government of Fortis's Dutch banking and insurance subsidiaries.Linklaters also advised Fortis on the unsuccessful cash injection, while Cleary Gottlieb advised Dexia, which is to receive a E6.4bn (£5.1bn) injection from the Benelux governments and shareholders. Cleary Gottlieb has also taken the lead for Italian bank UniCredit in its deal to secure up to E6.6 billion (£5.12bn) of funding. The firm's team is being led by Milan partners Roberto Casati, Michael Volkovitsch and Pietro Fioruzzi.Meanwhile, ongoing rescue negotiations for Germany's Hypo Real Estate have generated roles for Shearman & Sterling, advising the bank itself, as well as German independent Hengeler Mueller, which advised a consortium of financial institutions. Linklaters is also understood to have a role for the lender.In the US, Sullivan & Cromwell has taken the lead on negotiations for the rescue of Wachovia, which has seen both Citi and Wells Fargo bidding. Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising Citi on its bid for Wachovia's banking operations for $2.16bn (£1.16bn), while Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz is advising Wells Fargo on its bid to acquire all of Wachovia for $15.1bn (£8.7bn).

    1 minute read

  • October 9, 2008 |

    Banking turmoil sparks wave of takeover work for firms

    The ongoing chaos in the banking sector is continuing to generate roles for firms on both sides of the Atlantic as Benelux financial services group Fortis, Italian bank UniCredit and US bank Wachovia join the ranks of financial institutions striking deals.Linklaters and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have taken the lead roles as France's BNP Paribas takes control of Fortis in a E14.5bn (£11.2bn) deal. A Linklaters team lead by Brussels corporate partners Jean-Marie Nelissen Grade and Eric Pottier is advising Fortis on the deal, which will see BNP Paribas take over the main banking and insurance operations. Cleary Gottlieb has taken the main role for BNP Paribas, fielding a team under Paris corporate partner Pierre-Yves Chabert.Allen & Overy (A&O) also scored a role on the transaction, advising the Dutch authorities. The takeover follows an attempt to bail out Fortis through a E11.2bn (£8.9bn) cash injection from the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Herbert Smith ally Stibbe won the lead role advising the Belgian Government as it took a minority stake in Fortis, as well as fellow bank Dexia, and advised on the sale of its stake in Fortis to BNP Paribas. Clifford Chance advised the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, on the purchase by the Dutch Government of Fortis's Dutch banking and insurance subsidiaries.Linklaters also advised Fortis on the unsuccessful cash injection, while Cleary Gottlieb advised Dexia, which is to receive a E6.4bn (£5.1bn) injection from the Benelux governments and shareholders. Cleary Gottlieb has also taken the lead for Italian bank UniCredit in its deal to secure up to E6.6 billion (£5.12bn) of funding. The firm's team is being led by Milan partners Roberto Casati, Michael Volkovitsch and Pietro Fioruzzi.Meanwhile, ongoing rescue negotiations for Germany's Hypo Real Estate have generated roles for Shearman & Sterling, advising the bank itself, as well as German independent Hengeler Mueller, which advised a consortium of financial institutions. Linklaters is also understood to have a role for the lender.In the US, Sullivan & Cromwell has taken the lead on negotiations for the rescue of Wachovia, which has seen both Citi and Wells Fargo bidding. Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising Citi on its bid for Wachovia's banking operations for $2.16bn (£1.16bn), while Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz is advising Wells Fargo on its bid to acquire all of Wachovia for $15.1bn (£8.7bn).

    1 minute read

  • October 1, 2008 |

    Davis Polk hires ex-US securities commissioner

    Davis Polk & Wardwell has hired former US securities and exchange commissioner Annette Nazareth as a partner in Washington DC. Nazareth will practise in the financial institutions group, advising on complex regulatory matters and transactions. She will also work closely with Davis Polk's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement practice. She left her position at the SEC in January this year. She was a Davis Polk associate from 1981 to 1986.

    1 minute read

  • September 29, 2008 |

    US legal elite lead on Citi's Wachovia buy-out

    Four leading Wall Street firms have advised on the latest grand-scale banking rescue as Wachovia joins the ranks of banking giants to fall victim to the credit crunch. Davis Polk & Wardwell and Sullivan & Cromwell took the lead roles on Citi's acquisition of Wachovia's banking operations for $2.16bn (£1.16bn). Citi will take on around $53bn (£29bn) worth of Wachovia debt in the rescue deal, backed by the US Government.Sullivan advised Wachovia on the deal, while Davis Polk advised Citi, led by M&A partners John Ettinger and Phillip Mills and financial institutions partner Randall Guynn.

    1 minute read

  • September 22, 2008 |

    US could emerge as major player in suits stemming from financial crisis

    In the wake of most economic crises, the silver lining for lawyers and law firms is a surge in litigation. The present mess on Wall Street will no doubt…

    1 minute read

  • September 17, 2008 |

    US trio lead on AIG's $85bn Government bailout

    Details are slowly leaking out about how close AIG came to following Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy, only to have the Federal Reserve Bank of New York bail it out with an $85bn (£47.5bn) loan. Davis Polk & Wardwell represented the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on the deal, according to the firm. The team was led by partners Bradley Smith and Marshall Huebner. Two sources with direct knowledge of the deal say Sullivan & Cromwell represented AIG, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett represented AIG's board of directors.

    1 minute read

  • September 9, 2008 |

    NY and DC elite line up for US mortgage bail-out

    Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton are among a long list of leading US law firms to have advised on the US Government's dramatic rescue of failing mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.Wachtell advised the US Treasury on the rescue deal, which at the weekend saw the US Government take effective ownership of the ailing mortgage giants, which guarantee huge amounts of US mortgage-based securities.Wachtell's 17-lawyer team worked "flat-out" for more than two weeks ahead of the rescue deal, which was concluded at the weekend. The firm's team was led by partners Harold Novikoff and Edward Herlihy. The Treasury Department's team was led by general counsel Robert Hoyt.

    1 minute read