Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has taken a lead role on a £2.7bn deal which will see a Daimler/Rolls-Royce joint venture acquire German diesel engine maker Tognum for $4.4bn, reports The Am Law Daily.

Freshfields M&A partner Andreas Fabritius and finance partner Christoph Gleske in Frankfurt are advising Daimler, along with corporate partner Ferdinand Fromholzer in Munich. The Freshfields team is working with Holger Jahn, head of Daimler's in-house legal M&A group.

Daimler is a longstanding client of the magic circle firm, having turned to Freshfields last year for advice on its three-way tie-up with Nissan and Renault.

Meanwhile, Matthias Hentzen, co-managing partner of Germany's Hengeler Mueller, is leading a Duesseldorf-based team representing Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce GC Tim Rayner and legal adviser Darren Kamen are heading up matters in-house for the company.

Cartsen Berrar, a Frankfurt-based M&A partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, is advising Goldman Sachs as lead financial adviser to Daimler, while Tognum has turned to Latham & Watkins Frankfurt office managing partner Hans-Juergen Luett and corporate partner Wilhelm Reinhardt for outside counsel on the deal.

Eversheds corporate counsel Oliver Maass in Munich also is advising Tognum, whose general counsel is Geoffrey Goesswein.

Tognum said in a statement that it welcomed the offer by Daimler and Rolls-Royce and would evaluate the proposal before recommending a course of action to its shareholders under German securities laws.

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