Lovell White Durrant is celebrating success in the insurance industry this week after closing two major deals valued at more than £1bn for two new clients.
In May, Lovells corporate partners John Young and John Davidson were approached for the first time by Aegon UK – historically a Freshfields client.
The team was asked to advise Aegon on its £759m offer for Guardian Royal Exchange's UK life assurance operations from Sun Life and Provincial Holdings, represented by Slaughter and May corporate partner Nilufer von Bismarck.
Then in a matter of weeks the firm was hired by life assurance group Britannic to advise on its £346m offer for Britannia Building Society's life arm, Britannia Life.
Lovells picked up the work because the building society had already appointed Britannic's usual adviser Clifford Chance – led by corporate partner Katherine Coates – to advise on the disposal.
Lovells, which closed both deals last week, also won the work by bypassing Britannic's other legal advisers, Pinsent Curtis and Wragge & Co.
Young, who is also acting for Australian-based AMP on its £2.7bn acquisition of insurance company NPI, said both deals had used about 15 dedicated staff full time and more than 50 staff in total since it had received instructions.
He added that the work, which had come to a head in the last few weeks with a series of overnight meetings, had been complicated due to a number of factors.
These included the fact that the Britannic deal had not just been an acquisition but also included a 75% purchase of Britannia Building Society's investment management activities.
The deal also involved a complicated arrangement for the building society to distribute some of Britannic's life products.
Young said the current restructuring in the industry through mergers, acquisitions and demutualisations was set to continue.
"It is an exciting and challenging field to be involved in," he added.