Unlikely legal duo book places on airline takeover
Budget airline Flybe will be bought by a consortium including Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Group
January 11, 2019 at 07:16 AM
2 minute read
Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Hill Dickinson have lined up alongside Herbert Smith Freehills and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner to advise on a consortium's acquisition of struggling budget UK airline Flybe.
The pair have sealed roles acting for a takeover consortium made up of airline Virgin Atlantic, investment firm Cyrus Capital and transportation company Stobart Group. The deal will see Flybe operate under a new joint venture with Stobart, named Connect Airways.
Morgan Lewis & Bockius is advising Cyrus, which will own 40% of the new company, as well as advising Connect Airways on the transaction. Hill Dickinson is also acting as legal adviser to Connect Airways and to Stobart Aviation, which will hold 30% in the new company.
Morgan Lewis finance partner Georgia Quenby led the team for the US firm, with competition partner Omar Shah, corporate partner Iain Wright, employment and pensions partner Lee Harding and corporate and investment management partner Mark Geday also advising.
Leading for Hill Dickinson, meanwhile, were the firm's chairman and corporate lawyer Jonathan Brown and head of the Manchester corporate team Ian Gillis, with assistance from Liverpool-based corporate partner Michael Murphy.
Virgin Atlantic, which will take the remaining 30% stake in the company, is being advised by HSF. The firm is fielding a team that includes corporate partners Robert Moore, Ben Ward and Mark Bardell, competition and regulatory partners Kim Dietzel and Veronica Roberts, pensions partner Alison Brown and finance partner Kristen Roberts.
The consortium will purchase Flybe for £2.2m, and the three firms will make a £20m bridge loan available to Flybe, as well as a further £80m of funding following the deal's completion.
BCLP, meanwhile, is advising Flybe on the transaction. Flybe will now operate under the Virgin Atlantic brand.
The airline industry has provided a steady stream of work to legal advisers in recent years. In 2014, Bird & Bird, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Dentons picked up roles on Virgin Atlantic's sale and leaseback of 11 new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, each valued at $100m (£62m).
Elsewhere, Shoosmiths recently picked up a mandate for the administration of now-defunct airline Monarch's engineering arm. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Kirkland & Ellis and Stephenson Harwood all took roles on the administration of Monarch in 2017.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
New Frontiers: Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Launches in Cairo and Abu Dhabi
4 minute read
Travers Gives Holiday Bonus, Ropes & Gray Reduces Time Off Allowance
1 minute read
Japan’s Mori Hamada Joins Funder LCM for $150M Credit Suisse Bonds Claim
Trending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
