Ashurst's German arm has carried out its first major mandate for US private equity giant Apollo Management, advising on its €1.5bn (£1bn) acquisition of Dutch mail company TNT's logistics branch.

The City giant bagged a secondary role behind regular Apollo adviser Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz on the deal, which was carried out under Dutch law but involved German law aspects due to the majority of the target's assets being situated in Germany.

Ashurst fielded a team including its Madrid, Milan and Paris offices, led by Munich corporate partner Meiko Zeppenfeld and Frankfurt partners Stephan Kock and Tom Beckerhoff.

The deal also generated a role for magic circle firm Allen & Overy, which represented the vendor.

The mandate comes as Ashurst continues to rebuild its German private equity practice following the defection of heavyweight partner Joerg Kirchner, who quit to launch Latham & Watkins' Munich office in December last year.

German managing partner Simon Beddow commmented: "This is an excellent deal for us to work on.

"It shows our European network can work together with a top US firm."