It was looking good for a while. Giant South African companies such as Anglo American, Billiton and South African Breweries are swarming like flies around the London Stock Exchange – the prospect of tapping into a more fluid market to raise funds from which to venture down the acquisition trail is more than most mere mortals could handle.
Corporate lawyers at the likes of Linklaters could not have been more happy. Anglo American's relisting means Linklaters' team, led by David Cheyne, has been busy since October last year and they are reportedly expecting to bill about £1m in fees. And now Slaughter and May has picked up another FTSE 100 trophy client in South Africa's largest life assurer, Old Mutual, through its £4bn re-listing scheduled for the middle of the year.
But South Africa's finance ministry has thrown a spanner in the works. It is insisting that Old Mutual will be the last company allowed to go offshore. While this might not be the end of the saga, it will definitely delay any more UK listing work coming out of the country. Perhaps the Free Trade Agreement signed by the European Commission and the South African government in December will offer some recompense.

High flying hopes for the US
What Old Mutual giveth, another FTSE 100 client taketh away. Automotive and aerospace company LucasVarity was always mad for the US. Last October it teased itself with the prospect of a primary listing in New York, only to be frustrated by institutional shareholders who did not want the move. Now it appears as if the dream will come true after all. It is the target of a bidding war between US steerings and spacecraft manufacturer TRW and the acquisitive US breakings systems manufacturer Federal-Mogul. LucasVarity cannot lose – its management will finally be able to fulfil its aim of tapping into US investor interest in the automotive industry.
Freshfields, Allen & Overy and Eversheds, however, will all lose out. For the time being they are hanging on to the old client for dear life. Corporate partner Julian Francis of Freshfields is acting for LucasVarity in the on-going melee, while Allen & Overy's Alan Paul has been instructed by TRW. LucasVarity appears to have formally accepted TRW's £4bn cash offer, but Federal-Mogul will not give up easily. And that can only be a good thing for the lawyers.
City pleased with survey result
Talking of stock exchanges, City lawyers will be cheered by the findings of last week's Financial Times European 500 survey, which revealed that almost a third of the 500 largest European companies by market capitalisation are UK companies. Although the number of UK companies on the list dipped slightly from last year and Germany and France registered slight gains, the City's pre-eminence for capital markets work still shines through.
With Liffe showing signs that it will not cede ground to Frankfurt's Eurex without a fight, the City's number one status remains clear.
Derided in some quarters as fat cats, the role of the City's legal community in keeping it that way should not go unnoticed.