New York outfit Schulte Roth & Zabel has bagged a lead role alongside Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy, Shearman & Sterling and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom on Cerberus' acquisition of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division in a €5.5bn (£3.8bn) deal.

Schulte Roth and Milbank are representing the US buy-out house on M&A and financing of the bid respectively, while Shearman and Skadden, fielding teams in their New York and Munich offices, are representing DaimlerChrysler on the sale.

The sale, the terms of which are understood to leave DaimlerChrysler holding a minority stake in the division, marks the end of one of the most high-profile merger deals in the automotive sector, following the 1998 tie-up between Germany's Daimler-Benz and US group Chrysler Corporation.

Shearman advised the combined business on the sale of subsidiary MTU Friedrichshafen to Swedish financial investor EQT in 2005. Cerberus, meanwhile, has called in Milbank and Schulte Roth on numerous acquisitions in the past.

The deal comes with Skadden currently advising German pharmaceuticals giant Merck on the $6.7bn (£3.6bn) sale of subsidiary Mylan Laboratories, with the US giant again fielding teams in its New York and Munich offices.