Linklaters is advising Montagu Private Equity as the buyout house closes in on a £200m deal to acquire the College of Law.

Montagu has entered exclusive negotiations with the legal education provider to secure a deal, moving ahead of a raft of other bidders including Financial Times parent company Pearson and other private equity house including Providence Private Equity and Palamon Capital Partners.

Linklaters is fielding a team led by private equity co-head Richard Youle, while Allen & Overy (A&O), Weil Gotshal & Manges and Herbert Smith have all also taken related roles on the bidding process.

A&O is advising the College on the negotiations, with the magic circle firm's global chairman of corporate Richard Cranfield heading up the magic circle firm's team. Weil and Herbert Smith are acting for Providence and Pearson respectively, with City private equity partner Marco Compagnoni leading for Weil and Herbert Smith corporate partner Gillian Fairfield among the team advising Pearson.

The strategic review which kicked off the College's sale was launched last September. The College is currently structured as a charity, which has raised many questions about how a takeover would be structured.

Last summer the College completed a redundancy consultation which saw 20 full-time roles placed under review after concluding that some of its eight centres were overstaffed. The review concluded in August, with the College staing that it had not resorted to compulsory redundancies, and had instead relocated existing staff and offered others reduced hours.

The sale of the College of Law comes after its main competitor, BPP, was taken over in 2009 by US-based Apollo Global – a joint venture between Apollo Group and private equity house The Carlyle Group – in a £300m deal.

All parties declined to comment on the sale process.

For more, see College of Law launches strategic review and eyes potential sale.

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