Clifford Chance (CC) has won a mandate to advise Imagination Technologies, as the UK chip designer puts itself up for sale amid a dispute with Apple.

The CC team advising Imagination is being led out of London by M&A partner Lee Coney, with support from M&A partner Katherine Moir, intellectual property partner Vanessa Marsland, litigation partner Iain Roxborough and competition partners Jenine Hulsmann and Timothy Cornell.

Imagination is currently embroiled in a dispute with Apple, its largest customer, over licensing payments. In April, the US computer giant said it planned to stop using its chip designs – which help power the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch – by 2019.

However, the Hertfordshire-based business questioned at the time whether Apple could produce its own chip designs without breaching Imagination's patents.

Last month, Imagination announced it had kicked off a dispute resolution procedure with Apple over licensing payments.

Prior to confirming the formal sale process, Imagination had already put two of its three core businesses up for sale to mitigate the potential loss of its key customer.

In February this year, CC also won a mandate to advise the Co-operative Bank as the troubled bank kicked off the process to find a buyer. Coney is also leading the magic circle firm's team on this sale, alongside capital markets partner Iain Hunter, corporate partner Hilary Evenett and banking and finance partner Simon Gleeson.

In an update on the sales process issued on Monday (19 June), the Co-op Bank said it was "in advanced discussions with a group of existing investors with a view to a prospective equity capital raise and liability management exercise".