Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hengeler Mueller are among a line-up of top firms to have advised on a dual-track deal that has seen private equity giant BC Partners purchase Germany's Springer Science+Business Media for €3.3bn (£2.8bn).

Swedish private equity group EQT Partners and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC settled on a sale to BC Partners after considering both an initial public offering (IPO) and a direct sale of the science publisher.

Hengeler advised EQT, with separate teams handling the sale and proposed listing. The sale team comprised M&A partners Hans-Joerg Ziegenhain, Alexander Nolte, Maximilian Schiessl and Albrecht Conrad, tax partner Matthias Scheifele, finance partner Daniel Weiss and labour partner Christian Hoefs. Hengeler's team on the proposed IPO included Schiessl and fellow corporate partners Reinhold Ernst and Dirk Busch.

Ziegenhain said: "There was a lot of pressure to get the sale done in the small window of time we had – we had to pull three all-nighters to push the deal through, and it was a challenging process. There was a Chinese wall separating our teams, so generally there wasn't much overlap between them. 

"Dual-track processes have become common over the past five years in terms of structuring private equity deals, and I expect to see the trend continue."

Freshfields corporate partner Nils Koffka led the team acting for BC Partners, while Sullivan & Cromwell advised the banks on the planned IPO with a team headed by capitals markets partner Carsten Berrar. Clifford Chance acted for Springer's management with a team including M&A partner Christoph Witte.