New York's Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison has teamed up with Macfarlanes to advise private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners on a £945m agreement to acquire aerospace parts company Firth Rixson, one of the largest private equity deals to be completed since the summer's credit turmoil.

Paul Weiss' team was led by London M&A partners David Lakhdhir and Tarun Stewart, alongside New York finance partner Eric Goodison and tax specialist David Sicular.

Oak Hill is a long-term client of Paul Weiss, which was instructed on the deal in July. The firm approached Macfarlanes to advise on UK financing issues having worked alongside it on a number of earlier deals. Macfarlanes corporate partner Matthew Blows led the deal for the firm.

Oak Hill acquired Firth – which makes highly-engineered parts for aircraft engines – from The Carlyle Group and Lehman Brothers. Latham & Watkins London corporate partner Michael Bond advised Carlyle.

The deal was unusual as Lehman acted as both seller and financer of the acquirer alongside GE Commercial Finance and Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, making the deal a form of refinancing rather than an outright sale.

Ashurst, led by banking partner James Hogben, advised Lehman, GE and Lloyds. It is understood that DLA Piper also had a role advising Firth's management on the deal.

The deal comes as a number of private equity acquisitions have been pulled because of tight market conditions.

Stewart told Legal Week: "A combination of the sector and the fact that this is a strong business made it possible to get this deal done."