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  • February 7, 2007 |

    Freshfields and A&O take key roles on €24bn European energy merger

    Magic circle firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) have scooped the main roles on the latest European energy merger as the two biggest Dutch utility groups Essent and Nuon tie the knot in a €24bn (£16bn) deal.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Deals: M&A 08/02/2007

    Slaughter and May has advised Standard Chartered Bank on the sale of its shareholding in Standard Chartered Trustee and Standard Chartered Asset Management to a subsidiary of UBS, for $120m (£61m). Corporate partner Paul Olney led the team, working with Desai & Diwanji in India. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate partner Philip Richards led the team advising UBS.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Deals: Finance 08/02/2007

    White & Case has acted for Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank on its $350m (£178m) Eurobond issue. This is the first international corporate bond issue by a Nigerian business since the early 1990s. Finance partner Stuart Matty led the team. Standard Bank acted as sole bookrunner and was also joint lead manager along with Afrinvest (West Africa), were both advised on UK issues by Allen & Overy capital markets partner Jonathan Mellor.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Grad-watch 2007: A&O goes bird-watching

    Last year, The Diary highlighted how Linklaters innovators were targeting the cream of the university crop with the use of the new-fangled information superhighway, with blogs by its trainees extolling the virtues of life in the hallowed halls of Castle Greyskull.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Insolvency, Banking and Finance: A material difference

    The days of the clubby syndicated loans market are dead, or at least rapidly dying. These days, arrangers and agents increasingly have to deal with different types of investor from the traditional banks. Some of these investors, such as hedge funds, will be so-called public side investors, who will only want limited information about a borrower group. And there lies the rub. Public side and private side refer to the two sides of a Chinese wall (or information barrier) in an investment institution. People on the public side of the wall deal in regulated investments such as bonds, equities and derivatives, which are subject to insider dealing legislation. To ensure they can never be accused of trading on the basis of inside information, public side staff must only have access to public information - leaving any private information firmly on the other side of the information barrier.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Insolvency, Banking and Finance: International rescue

    Internet companies are very much back in vogue and the dotcom collapse in 2000 seems long forgotten. The growth of online newspapers and magazines has lined internet investors' pockets with silver, but it has not been such good news for others. With advertising and readers moving away from hard copy, the printing sector has been facing serious financial pressure. Pagination and advertising revenues have dropped and, with that, there has been a spate of collapses. Last year there were more than a dozen insolvencies in the UK printing sector, including New Jarrold Printing and Pillans & Waddies. Even the big players have faced financial distress and, in December 2006, the Polestar Group - Europe's leading independent printing group - underwent restructuring.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    David Jabbari: Quality and quantity

    Mark Chandler, general counsel of Cisco, recently delivered a speech in which he labelled law firms as the "last vestige of the medieval guild system". Chandler argued that there was a growing "misalignment" between law firms and their clients. He concluded that standardisation of legal expertise was moving from the periphery to first-tier work and that the very source of success today - the ability to control client access to information - would be a source of failure for law firms in the future.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 | International Edition

    Lovells loses US restructuring duo to MoFo

    Lovells is set to lose the bulk of its US restructuring practice after two partners, including its US restructuring head, Gary Lee, handed in their notice. Lee, who leads the firm's US insolvency and restructuring practice and is one of the firm's best-known US partners, and Karen Ostad are both understood to have handed in their notice within the last week.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2007 |

    Lovells loses US restructuring duo to MoFo

    Lovells is set to lose the bulk of its US restructuring practice after two partners, including its US restructuring head, Gary Lee, handed in their notice. Lee, who leads the firm's US insolvency and restructuring practice and is one of the firm's best-known US partners, and Karen Ostad are both understood to have handed in their notice within the last week.

    1 minute read

  • February 6, 2007 | International Edition

    A&O lands Liverpool FC takeover role

    Allen & Overy has won a lead role on the takeover of Liverpool Football Club by a pair of US investors. The magic circle firm is advising US-based sports entrepreneurs George Gillett and Tom Hicks on their acquisition through bid vehicle Kop Football. The club announced earlier today that its board had recommended the offer, which is worth more than £400m in total.

    1 minute read