Travers Smith's longstanding ties with 3i are paying dividends as the City firm landed the pole advisory position on the majority of the buy-out house's transactions in the past year, according to new research.

Statistics compiled for Legal Week by Mergermarket show Travers has advised on the majority of the FTSE 100 company's major City transactions since January 2006, including the group's three largest deals, which have a combined value of £4bn.

3i is one of the UK's most active mid-market buy-out houses and has a close relationship with Travers head of corporate Chris Hale. It also instructs other firms including Macfarlanes and Clifford Chance (CC) for top-tier work in the City.

While Travers has advised on the majority of 3i's City-based deals over £100m in the last year, including the £993m bid for estate agents Countrywide and £790m sale of National Car Parks, Macfarlanes by comparison has seen less top-end work posted its way. CC has also seen little of the firm's UK work, although it has been involved on some of its cross-border deals, including the £211m acquisition of chemical group Azelis.

Lovells, which was historically an adviser to 3i, has seen only a small amount of work since the departure of private equity partners Marco Compagnoni and Derek Baird to Weil Gotshal & Manges and Allen & Overy respectively last year.

3i categorises its investments and although Travers, Macfarlanes and CC are on the adviser roster for the client's high-profile buy-out group, which invests in companies worth up to E1bn (£679m), Macfarlanes has seen no significant work recently from its infrastructure section, 3i's second largest panel by value. Macfarlanes' most significant deal on the buy-out side was the £137m acquisition of Mayborn Group. The firm has, however, advised on a couple of deals in the past year of just under the £100m mark.

One partner at an advisory firm commented: "It is fair to say Travers has got the bulk of the work in recent times. CC has picked up where Lovells left off and Macfarlanes has possibly been doing less work than it did. However, it is important to look at the statistics in the context of which category the deal falls under."

Another 3i adviser commented: "Each of the advisers will want to do work across all of 3i's product lines, although the buy-out sector, which is very active, is also the most high profile. They are a very active client and put great stall in personal relationships."

3i's director of legal servicesm David Denchm said that it instructed its advisers based on the type of deal and the availability of the teams, and that there was no particular reason why one firm received work over another.

In late 2004 3i became one of the first houses to introduce a panel of advisers based on individuals rather than just firms. It also hands advisory work to Macfarlanes private equity partner Charles Meek and CC private equity head James Baird.