Clifford Chance (CC) has strengthened its relationship with US buy-out giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) after advising on the client's £593m acquisition of IT group Northgate Information Solutions.

It is the latest significant instruction the magic circle firm has received from KKR, the most active private equity house for top-tier work over the last three years.

CC corporate partner Daniel Kossoff led the team advising KKR. While regular adviser Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was instructed alongside CC on finance aspects of the deal, the transaction is evidence of CC's growing relationship with the buy-out house in Europe. KKR recently handed the law firm a key mandate alongside Simpson Thacher on its £9.7bn takeover bid for Alliance Boots – a deal on which Kossoff also led.

In the last three years KKR has carried out 14 European M&A deals worth a total of E66.3bn (£49.2bn).

Linklaters corporate partner Roger Barron advised regular client Northgate along with managing associate Alex Molla and associate Emily Elford.

Northgate is the UK's largest processor of payslips, and provides human resources (HR) systems to companies worldwide. It recently took over Belgian HR specialist Arinso in a E371m (£268m) deal that also saw Linklaters instructed.

The deal is significant coming amid a slowdown in private equity deals following the freeze in credit markets. Barron commented: "This is evidence of the fact that if the asset is right and the bidder is right you can get access to funds even if the market is not quite right."

Meanwhile, late last month CC clinched its first UK deal for buy-out house 3i, advising on the £228m acquisition of inspection and testing business Inspicio. While CC has previously acted for 3i on deals in Europe and Asia, the City giant had not completed a UK transaction for the client.

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