Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom has taken the lead role on Renault's €3bn (£2.6bn) sale of a majority stake in Volvo, in one of the largest Scandinavian equity deals of the past decade.

In a move aimed at reducing its debts, French car manufacturer Renault has sold all of its so-called 'B shares' in Sweden's Volvo, which represent approximately 14.9% of the share capital and 3.8% of the voting rights in the company.

Skadden advised Renault, fielding a team led by Paris managing partner Pierre Servan-Schreiber, alongside Paris corporate partners Pascal Bine, Cedric Lor and Sidne Koenigsberg and London corporate partners Richard Muglia, James McDonald and Paolo Mara.

The private placement was launched last week (6 October) after the close of the market and was entirely completed before the opening of the market on the following day. The transaction was managed by Goldman Sachs – the sole bookrunner on the deal.

Servan-Schreiber commented: "This was the biggest block trade in Europe to happen with one single bookrunner, which meant that there was no syndicate to deal with. The deal was done between sunset and sunrise, which was fascinating."

In April this year Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Sullivan & Cromwell took lead roles on a joint venture between Renault, Daimler and Nissan that will see the automakers team up to develop a new wave of energy-efficient cars.

Sullivan advised Renault on that deal with a team comprising partners from its offices in Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and London.