Walkers and Mourant merger still on the cards

Merger talks between two of the largest firms in the offshore legal market are still alive despite the pair ditching plans to sell Walkers' services arm to its offshore rival, Mourant du Feu & Jeune. The two firms have been negotiating the best way to structure any exchange of assets, but the only deal left on the table now is a straight merger that would create a 300-lawyer firm.

November 01, 2007 at 12:43 AM

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Merger talks between two of the largest firms in the offshore legal market are still alive despite the pair ditching plans to sell Walkers' services arm to its offshore rival, Mourant du Feu & Jeune.

The two firms have been negotiating the best way to structure any exchange of assets, but the only deal left on the table now is a straight merger that would create a 300-lawyer firm.

Walkers' plans to sell off its highly profitable services arm, Walkers SPV, to Mourant would have meant a pay-day for the firm's equity partners, but would have considerably devalued the rest of the firm.

A rival partner told Legal Week: "Walkers SPV is the cash-cow of the business. The Walkers equity partners would have made a large amount of money but without the services arm, the law firm is nowhere near as profitable. That is why merging the business becomes a good idea."

Walkers managing partner Grant Stein commented: "There is an obvious up-side to creating the largest offshore law firm in the world, but there are a lot of hurdles to overcome."