A&O, Slaughters and Freshfields head up firms acting on historic capital injection deal

Allen & Overy (A&O), Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks.

Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan.

Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of 43% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

RBS announced a £20bn capital raising this week (13 October), while HBOS and Lloyds will receive £17bn between them, with the bulk going to HBOS. Barclays has confirmed that it intends to raise more than £6.5bn of tier one capital without government help.

Clifford Chance, meanwhile, is advising long-term client Barclays with a team led by corporate partner Guy Norman.

A&O is advising HBOS in relation to the bailout, which is part of the broader £500bn package of measures announced last week to bring stability to the banking sector. Financial institutions head Alistair Asher is leading the team advising the bank.

Linklaters is also thought to have won roles for two banks as it serves as main corporate counsel to both RBS and Lloyds TSB, with banking head Robert Elliott and corporate partner Jeremy Parr acting as respective relationship partners.

In a further role Freshfields also advised the sponsors and placing agents to each of the three banks on the capital injection. Corporate partners Simon Witty and Mark Trapnell advised Merrill Lynch and UBS on RBS. Corporate partner Julian Makin led a team for Merrill, UBS and Citi on Lloyds TSB. Financial institutions co-head Will Lawes and partner Neil Radford led a team for Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort on HBOS's capital raising.

Last week's rescue package saw the Treasury agreeing to supply up to £50bn in capital to some of the UK's biggest lenders. The broader package includes Government guarantees on up to £250bn of new short- and medium-term debt issues and up to £200bn in additional liquidity.

Eight of the UK's largest lenders initially gave the recapitalisation plan their support; although some, such as HSBC, publicly stated that they do not intend to take up Government capital.

Jayesh Patel, a banking and finance partner at Denton Wilde Sapte, said: "What the Government has come up with is very clever. They have managed to alleviate much of the problem without putting taxpayers' money at risk."

Keep abreast of all the latest post-Lehman developments in our Legal Week Wiki special.

A&O, Slaughters and Freshfields head up firms acting on historic capital injection deal

Allen & Overy (A&O), Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are among the top City firms winning roles on the UK Government's £37bn bailout of three of the country's biggest banks.

Freshfields has reprised its role for longstanding client the Bank of England on the rescue plan, fielding a team under corporate partner Michael Raffan.

Slaughters is acting for the Treasury on the agreement, which will lead to the Government owning a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and a stake of 43% in the merged HBOS and Lloyds TSB.

RBS announced a £20bn capital raising this week (13 October), while HBOS and Lloyds will receive £17bn between them, with the bulk going to HBOS. Barclays has confirmed that it intends to raise more than £6.5bn of tier one capital without government help.

Clifford Chance, meanwhile, is advising long-term client Barclays with a team led by corporate partner Guy Norman.

A&O is advising HBOS in relation to the bailout, which is part of the broader £500bn package of measures announced last week to bring stability to the banking sector. Financial institutions head Alistair Asher is leading the team advising the bank.

Linklaters is also thought to have won roles for two banks as it serves as main corporate counsel to both RBS and Lloyds TSB, with banking head Robert Elliott and corporate partner Jeremy Parr acting as respective relationship partners.

In a further role Freshfields also advised the sponsors and placing agents to each of the three banks on the capital injection. Corporate partners Simon Witty and Mark Trapnell advised Merrill Lynch and UBS on RBS. Corporate partner Julian Makin led a team for Merrill, UBS and Citi on Lloyds TSB. Financial institutions co-head Will Lawes and partner Neil Radford led a team for Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort on HBOS's capital raising.

Last week's rescue package saw the Treasury agreeing to supply up to £50bn in capital to some of the UK's biggest lenders. The broader package includes Government guarantees on up to £250bn of new short- and medium-term debt issues and up to £200bn in additional liquidity.

Eight of the UK's largest lenders initially gave the recapitalisation plan their support; although some, such as HSBC, publicly stated that they do not intend to take up Government capital.

Jayesh Patel, a banking and finance partner at Denton Wilde Sapte, said: "What the Government has come up with is very clever. They have managed to alleviate much of the problem without putting taxpayers' money at risk."

Keep abreast of all the latest post-Lehman developments in our Legal Week Wiki special.