Weil Gotshal & Manges has secured a role opposite Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on Premier Foods' £460m acquisition of Campbell Soup's UK and Irish businesses.

Weil Gotshal is acting for regular client Premier Foods on the proposed acquisition with London managing partner Mike Francies and private equity partner Ian Hamilton leading.

UK food company Premier already owns household brands including Bird's Custard and Branston Pickle, but the Campbell Soup acquisition will give it brands such as Oxo, Batchelors, Homepride and Fray Bentos to add to the fold.

Weil Gotshal has acted on a range of deals for Premier including advising its former owner, private equity house Hicks Muse Tate & Furst (now Lion Capital), on Premier's £527m IPO in 2004. Other transactions it has advised Premier on include its £80m sale of Typhoo Tea in November last year, its £172m acquisition of Marlow Foods (manufacturer of vegetarian brand Quorn) in June 2005 and acquisitions of Bird's Custard and Angel Delight from Kraft Foods in 2004 and Ambrosia from Unilever in 2003.

Hamilton told Legal Week: "We do all of Premier's main M&A work and have been involved in this auction since April. What made this acquisition more unusual was funding it through a rights issue at the same time."

Slaughter and May is acting for underwriters Merrill Lynch and Hoare Govett and sponsor NM Rothschild on the £450m acquisition funding, which is intended to be raised primarily through a rights issue. Corporate partners Nilufer von Bismarck and Roland Turnill are leading the Slaughters' team.

Freshfields corporate partner Martin Taylor is leading the team, which also includes IP/IT partner Avril Martindale, acting for regular client Campbell Soup on the disposal. Taylor has previously advised the company on its acquisition of Unilever's European Culinary Brands.