Slaughter and May, Macfarlanes and Latham & Watkins have lined up to advise on the £825m sale of Four Seasons Health Care to private equity house Terra Firma.

Slaughters is advising Terra Firma on the acquisition, with corporate partner Jeff Twentyman leading a team alongside finance partner Mark Dwyer.

Macfarlanes is advising Four Seasons, with corporate partner Ian Martin heading a team which also includes banking and finance partner Bronwen Jones.

Meanwhile, Latham has taken the lead role for Goldman Sachs and Barclays, which are arranging the debt financing for the acquisition. The US firm is fielding a London team including capital markets partner Jocelyn Seitzman, finance partner Jayanthi Sadanandan and tax partner Daniel Friel.

Martin said: "While this is the fifth time in eight years we have acted on a change of ownership of Four Seasons, in the context of the widely publicised difficulties the group has faced over the last few years, this deal should provide considerable reassurance for the group's 20,000 residents and 30,000 employees."

Four Seasons is the largest independent healthcare provider in the UK, with 445 care homes. The deal is expected to be completed by July 2012.

Slaughters has previously acted for Terra Firma on a number of high-profile transactions including its sale of off-licence chain Thresher Group to a consortium led by private equity and pensions investor Edmund Truell in 2007.

Other firms to have advised Terra Firma in recent years include Weil Gotshal & Manges, which advised on its £3.2bn takeover of EMI also in 2007, while Kirkland & Ellis advised the private equity house on the creation of the Terra Firma Capital Partners III fund, which raised €5.4bn (£4.4bn) the same year.