Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance (CC) have won lead roles on General Electric's £800m takeover of UK oil and gas services company Wellstream, reports The Am Law Daily.

GE's takeover of the Newcastle-based company, which designs pipes used in undersea oil and gas drilling, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

CC is advising Wellstream on the deal, with City M&A partners Timothy Lewis and David Lewis leading the firm's team.

GE is being advised by Slaughters, with the magic circle firm's team headed up by corporate partner Mark Zerdin. GE transaction and finance counsel George Flemma is managing the deal internally at the company.

Slaughters also advised GE in 2008 on the competition law aspects of its $1bn (£630m) acquisition of Italian corporate bank Interbanca from Banco Santander in 2008.

The Wellstream deal, which comes two months after GE's $3bn (£1.9bn) acquisition of energy services company Dresser, represents a 29% premium over the company's closing share price on 20 September.

The move for Wellstream is likely to be among others to come in the near future for GE. CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in October that the company has $20bn (£12.6bn) in discretionary cash to spend.

The Am Law Daily is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.