Norton Rose and Lovells have become the latest firms to benefit from the £45bn merger bid between Barclays and ABN Amro, with the City firms each advising major Asian clients on more than £2bn worth of investment in the UK financial services giant.

Norton Rose is acting for the China Development Bank and Lovells is representing Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore Government, which have acquired stakes worth a combined £2.4bn in Barclays ahead of its planned takeover of ABN.

The investors will expand their combined share by a further £6.5bn if the ABN deal goes through.

Norton Rose fielded a team comprising lawyers from its London, Amsterdam, Beijing and Hong Kong offices, headed by London corporate finance partner Martin Scott.

Top 10 City rival Lovells acted for Temasek on the deal.

The news comes with the bidding war for ABN generating roles for a clutch of leading law firms. Clifford Chance continues to act for Barclays through global head of corporate Peter Charlton and corporate partner Guy Norman.

Dutch independent NautaDutilh is leading for ABN alongside Allen & Overy, with Stibbe advising the bank's supervisory board and Davis Polk & Wardwell advising on US law.

Linklaters, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Slaughter and May and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, meanwhile, all bagged roles advising a consortium of rival bidders comprising Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander and Belgium's Fortis Bank.