A&O and Slaughters lead on BA/Iberia merger bid
Allen & Overy (A&O) has landed a high-profile instruction advising Spanish airline Iberia on its merger talks with British Airways (BA). A&O is fielding a team led by Madrid managing partner Inigo Gomez-Jordana and London corporate veteran Alan Paul in what will be seen as a trophy mandate for the top five London firm.
July 30, 2008 at 07:50 AM
2 minute read
Allen & Overy (A&O) has landed a high-profile instruction advising Spanish airline Iberia on its merger talks with British Airways (BA).
A&O is fielding a team led by Madrid managing partner Inigo Gomez-Jordana and London corporate veteran Alan Paul in what will be seen as a trophy mandate for the top five London firm.
Slaughter and May and Spanish referral partner Uria Menendez are acting for regular client BA. Slaughters' team is being led by M&A head Steve Cooke and corporate partner David Wittmann, with Bertrand Louveaux advising on competition matters. Madrid-based corporate partner Juan-Francisco Falcon is leading the team for Uria.
The same team worked together last year when the FTSE 100 company joined forces with a private equity consortium including TPG Capital and Vista Capital to investigate a potential bid for Iberia.
Though A&O has previously acted for Iberia, last year's approach from BA saw London rival Clifford Chance take the lead role for the Spanish carrier.
The all-share merger bid, which has the backing of both companies' boards, was formally announced on Tuesday (29 July).
The bid is also likely to generate substantial work for competition lawyers given the complexity of aviation competition issues within the European Union, though the initial reaction has been that it is likely to be cleared by antitrust regulators.
If it were to go ahead it would allow the airlines to take on bigger rivals such as Air France-KLM, creating one of the largest airlines in Europe with a market capitalisation of around £4bn.
The deal is also viewed as helping both carriers to cope with a challenging market, which is being squeezed by falling consumer demand and soaring fuel costs.
Commenting on the talks, BA chief executive Willie Walsh said: "The combined balance sheet, anticipated synergies and network fit between the airlines make a merger an attractive proposition, particularly in the current economic environment. We have had a successful relationship with Iberia for a decade and are confident that both companies' shareholders would benefit from the proposed tie-up".
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