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  • October 15, 2010 |

    Mayer Brown acts on late Liverpool bid as £300m takeover goes through

    Mayer Brown has advised investment company Mill Financial on its failed eleventh-hour bid for Liverpool FC, as US sports group New England Sport Ventures (NESV) completes its £300m takeover of the Premier League club. US investor Mill, which was advised by Mayer Brown's UK corporate head Peter Dickinson and corporate partner Kate Ball-Dodd, today (15 October) held negotiations with co-owner Tom Hicks over the acquisition of his stake in the club.

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  • October 13, 2010 |

    Top names ready to battle for honours at 2010 British Legal Awards

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) are among the firms shortlisted for a number of categories in the 2010 British Legal Awards. The group has been nominated for the much sought after Law Firm of the Year award alongside Clyde & Co, Sullivan & Cromwell and Travers Smith.

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  • October 13, 2010 |

    Slaughters advises media coalition on NewsCorp-Sky takeover opposition

    Slaughter and May has won a role advising a coalition of media organisations opposed to NewsCorp chief Rupert Murdoch's bid to secure a full takeover of BSkyB. Slaughters' competition team is advising eight media rivals - which include the BBC, Channel 4, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph - on NewsCorp's bid to acquire the remaining 60.1% of shares in satellite broadcaster BSkyB, a deal which values the company at more than £12bn.

    1 minute read

  • October 13, 2010 |

    Burges Salmon leads as Eurostar buys high-speed trains for £700m

    Burges Salmon has taken the lead role on Eurostar's multimillion-pound German train purchase. The Channel Tunnel rail operator announced a £700m investment programme for its fleet last week (7 October), including the purchase of 10 new high-speed trains from German engineering giant Siemens, which are set to cut the London-Paris journey time by about 15 minutes.

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  • October 13, 2010 |

    Deals Q3: could be worse but won't get better for a while

    Last year the hope, however wishful, was that a few big deals could unblock a pipeline that had been clogged since the credit crunch hit. After all, if you stripped out the impact of bank rescue deals, 2008 and 2009 were largely a washout for M&A advisers. Yet the latest figures from Mergermarket demonstrate that, while there was a sporadic revival of big-ticket M&A deals after Kraft Foods' bid for Cadbury got the ball rolling 12 months ago, this has not as yet translated into much of a general upturn in activity.

    1 minute read

  • October 13, 2010 |

    Grabiner and Snowden secure court win for RBS and Liverpool FC board

    Lord Grabiner QC and Erskine Chambers' Richard Snowden QC have secured a High Court victory in the Liverpool takeover battle after the presiding judge ruled that the club's £300m sale to New England Sport Ventures (NESV) can proceed. Mr Justice Floyd handed down his judgment this morning in favour of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Liverpool's main creditor, which is owed around £280m by the club's US owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

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  • October 12, 2010 |

    Freshfields enters the fray as Liverpool court battle kicks off

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Erskine Chambers' Richard Snowden QC have taken centre stage alongside Lord Grabiner QC in today's high-profile Liverpool court battle. Freshfields instructed Erskine's Snowden after being appointed to advise the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on the dispute, which is being heard today in the Chancery Division of the High Court by Mr Justice Floyd.

    1 minute read

  • October 11, 2010 |

    Macfarlanes advises Singapore billionaire on £360m Liverpool counter-offer

    Macfarlanes has become the latest law firm to take a role on the protracted Liverpool takeover saga, representing a Singapore billionaire who has lodged an improved bid for the Premier League club. The City law firm is advising Peter Lim, who has made an increased £360m offer after last week losing out to US sports group New England Sport Ventures (NESV), whose £300m bid was accepted by the club's board. The new bid values the club at £320m, with a further £40m made available to purchase new players.

    1 minute read

  • October 11, 2010 |

    Grabiner joins Liverpool dream team as takeover dispute heads for courts

    One Essex Court heavyweight Lord Grabiner QC is set to represent Liverpool Football Club as the boardroom wrangle over the club's future moves into the courts tomorrow morning (12 October). Grabiner has been instructed to advise Liverpool FC's board alongside magic circle firm Slaughter and May on the proposed £300m sale of the club to Boston Red Sox owners New England Sport Ventures (NESV). One Essex Court's Jamie Goldsmith, son of former attorney general Peter Goldsmith, has also been instructed to provide advice.

    1 minute read

  • October 6, 2010 |

    Big-ticket M&A boosts Q3 deals but partners remain guarded on upturn

    Global M&A activity for the third quarter has risen against 2009, with the European and US markets seeing marked increases in deal volume over the period. A total of 2,599 deals worth a combined $512.4bn (£322bn) were announced during the last quarter, up from 2,421 deals worth $321.3bn (£202bn) during the same period last year, according to the latest figures from Legal Week's exclusive data provider Mergermarket.

    1 minute read