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  • February 9, 2012 |

    Magic circle duo win roles on €8bn loan agreement

    Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters have won roles relating to German car part manufacturer Schaeffler's new €8bn (£6.6bn) credit agreement. A&O is advising the company on the loan as well as a €2bn (£1.7bn) high-yield bond programme, which will be used to immediately repay part of the new bank facility. The firm's team was led by lawyers in Frankfurt and Munich including banking and finance partners Thomas Neubaum, Walter Uebelhoer and Oliver Waldburg, equity capital markets partners Oliver Seiler and Gernot Wagner, corporate partner Alexander Veith and tax partner Heike Weber.

    1 minute read

  • February 6, 2012 |

    Skadden boosts Germany with double partner hire from Shearman

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is set to launch a dedicated capital markets practice in Germany, with the hire of two partners from US rival Shearman & Sterling. The New York firm has hired Shearman's European capital markets head Stephan Hutter and fellow partner Katja Kaulamo for its Frankfurt office, taking its partner count in Germany to nine, including six in Frankfurt.

    1 minute read

  • January 26, 2012 |

    Banking and finance

    Simmons on the response to the ICB's banking system reform recommendations and Shearman & Sterling asks if today's distressed debt will be tomorrow's hot asset class

    1 minute read

  • January 26, 2012 |

    Trading in distress - will today's distressed debt be tomorrow's hot alternative asset class?

    Old world distressed debt has become a significant opportunity for investment in the UK and Europe in 2012. Shearman's Solomon Noh reports

    1 minute read

  • January 25, 2012 |

    Morrison & Foerster seals Hong Kong IPO triple

    Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) has signed off three multimillion-dollar listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in recent weeks, as Asian capital markets work continues to grow in importance for international law firms. The US law firm advised the underwriters – China International Capital Corporation, UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland – on the $300m (£194m) initial public offering (IPO) of Chinese power company Guodian Technology and Environment Group, which listed on 30 December.

    1 minute read

  • January 23, 2012 |

    Links, White & Case and Skadden make SocGen's French line-up

    Societe Generale has drawn up a roster of law firms to provide advice in France, with Linklaters, White & Case and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom among those making the cut. CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre; Linklaters; White & Case; De Pardieu Brocas Maffei and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel have all been selected to provide general legal advice to SocGen in France.

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  • January 19, 2012 |

    GDF Suez appoints firms to first global legal panel

    GDF Suez has appointed a trio of firms to its inaugural global legal panel in the wake of its £5bn reverse takeover of electricity generator International Power last summer. Linklaters and French leader Bredin Prat, both longstanding advisers to GDF Suez, have been appointed to the roster, which will cover transactional work in all of the jurisdictions in which GDF Suez operates. US firm Shearman & Sterling has also been selected for the panel.

    1 minute read

  • January 19, 2012 |

    Stayin' alive (just) – high street woe looks set to shake restructuring market out of relative calm

    With budget fashion retailers Peacocks and Barratts this week looking set to join a growing list of high street casualties in the latest round of economic turmoil, 2012 should – in theory – shape up to be a busy year for City restructuring and insolvency partners. To date, January has already seen the likes of Addleshaw Goddard, Travers Smith, Linklaters and SJ Berwin win roles on the administrations of Blacks Leisure and lingerie chain La Senza and, with many predicting a surge of additional collapses, the tally of firms winning work from turbulence on the high street is obviously set to increase. Still, a quick glance behind the more high-profile headlines shows that restructuring – and in particular, insolvency – work has so far failed to see the sustained upsurge predicted in the wake of Lehman Brothers' collapse and the onset of the last recession. While there was a run of deals in the wake of the banking crisis through 2009 and early 2010, by consensus pickings have been slimmer than restructuring teams expected.

    1 minute read

  • January 16, 2012 |

    Macfarlanes adds hedge funds team with City boutique takeover

    Macfarlanes has taken over specialist hedge fund law firm D Harris & Co International (DHCI) in a bid to grow the firm's footprint in the hedge fund market. All of DHCI's nine City-based employees have joined Macfarlanes' private equity practice today (16 January), with DHCI founder Daniel Harris taking a consultant role alongside five associates, two trainees and one paralegal.

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  • January 12, 2012 |

    A&O leads for Asia M&A while Linklaters and Freshfields dominate lean Euro market

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has emerged as the top-ranked UK M&A adviser in 2011 in the strategically key Asia-Pacific market, securing an apparent vindication for its sustained push in the region. Figures from Legal Week's exclusive data provider Mergermarket show A&O leading the Asia-Pacific rankings (which exclude Japan) in value terms after advising on 53 deals with a combined value of $50.5bn (£32.7bn) in 2011, well ahead of international rivals. The firm was also the highest ranked City practice according to number of Asia deals, in sixth place overall.

    1 minute read