• May 31, 2007 |

    Skadden energised by $4bn Coke deal

    Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has acted for iconic brand Coca-Cola on its biggest acquisition to date, the $4.1bn (£2.1bn) purchase of energy drinks company Energy Brand. Skadden fielded a team out of its New York office led by M&A partners Martha McGarry and Sean Doyle.

    1 minute read

  • May 30, 2007 |

    Bank of Beijing IPO generates trophy mandates but lawyers wary of Hong Kong listing threat

    A raft of firms including DLA Piper and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are in line to bag roles on the Bank of Beijing's initial public offering (IPO) - the latest of the Chinese state-owned banks to go public.

    1 minute read

  • May 23, 2007 |

    Bingham hires Shearman counsel for City finance

    Bingham McCutchen has hired Shearman & Sterling counsel Elisabeth Baltay as a partner in its London finance practice. Baltay, who is UK-qualified, has experience in international structured finance deals as well as restructurings, public-to-private financings, projects and secured syndicated corporate lending. She joins projects partner Stephen Peppiatt, who also quit Shearman to join Bingham's local finance practice last October.

    1 minute read

  • May 23, 2007 |

    Shearman, BLP and Milbank lead on record Saudi utilities project

    Shearman & Sterling, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) have signed a $2.8bn (£1.42bn) financing agreement for the world's largest independent water and power plant (IWPP) - the $3.5bn (1.77bn) Marafiq project in Saudi Arabia.

    1 minute read

  • May 22, 2007 |

    Manhattan duo lead GE's $12bn plastics sale

    Weil Gotshal & Manges and Shearman & Sterling have bagged lead roles on the sale by General Electric (GE) of its plastics business to Saudi Basic Industries in a $11.6bn (£5.9bn) deal. Shearman advised the buyer, with firm co-managing partner John Madden and New York-based corporate partner Stephen Besen leading the team acting on behalf of Saudi.

    1 minute read

  • May 17, 2007 |

    Top firms to cash in as L-Cat ups spend again

    Government spending through its much-vaunted L-Cat super-panel has increased for the fourth year running as Whitehall presses on with a drive to centralise its legal procurement. Provisional figures obtained by Legal Week from the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) show £14.5m in fees has been paid out to the 33-firm panel during the last 12 months - a rise of 10% on £13.3m last year. The increase is a more modest result than the previous year, which saw annual spending rocket by 100%.

    1 minute read

  • May 16, 2007 |

    Three more City firms bulk up NQ salaries to match rivals

    Lovells, Simmons & Simmons and Nabarro are the latest firms to increase newly-qualified salaries to meet the new City benchmark. The increases, effective from 1 May, take Lovells' and Simmons' newly-qualified salaries from £55,000 to £63,500 - joining Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May and Norton Rose at that rate. Nabarro has increased its newly-qualifed rate to around £62,500.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2007 | International Edition

    Lovells hikes NQ pay to £63,500 to match CC

    Lovells has become the latest City firm to up its associate salaries, with the top 10 UK outfit boosting its rate for newly-qualified lawyers by 15% to £63,500. The hike is Lovells' second pay-rise for newly-qualified lawyers in the last year, having raised salaries from last May's £53,000 to a new mark of £55,000 in November.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2007 |

    Lovells hikes NQ pay to £63,500 to match CC

    Lovells has become the latest City firm to up its associate salaries, with the top 10 UK outfit boosting its rate for newly-qualified lawyers by 15% to £63,500. The hike is Lovells' second pay-rise for newly-qualified lawyers in the last year, having raised salaries from last May's £53,000 to a new mark of £55,000 in November.

    1 minute read

  • May 14, 2007 |

    Schulte Roth joins NY giants on Chrysler sale

    New York outfit Schulte Roth & Zabel has bagged a lead role alongside Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy, Shearman & Sterling and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom on Cerberus' acquisition of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division in a €5.5bn (£3.8bn) deal. Schulte Roth and Milbank are representing the US buy-out house on M&A and financing of the bid respectively, while Shearman and Skadden are representing DaimlerChrysler on the sale.

    1 minute read