Slaughter and May is advising on the £1.3bn hostile takeover of sub-prime lender Provident Financial Group, a client for which it used to act.

The magic circle firm said it is acting for Non-Standard Finance, a consumer finance company founded in 2015 by former Provident chairman John van Kuffeler – a longtime Slaughters client.

Slaughters was previously a key adviser to Provident, acting on a number of acquisitions, as well as the 2007 demerger of its home credit business arm, International Personal Finance (IPF).

Leading the deal is corporate head Andy Ryde and fellow corporate partner Paul Mudie. The pair recently acted on the the sale of European plastic packaging company RPC to a fund managed by private equity firm Apollo for £3.3bn.

Provident is being advised by Clifford Chance, with a team led by M&A partners Lee Coney and Mark Poulton.

Provident did not respond to requests for comment.   

Ryde acted for Provident throughout the 1990s, including on the IPF demerger. Following the separation, Slaughters made the decision to part ways with Provident and instead retain van Kuffeler as a client, and subsequently started acting for his new business NSF.

Ryde has since acted for NSF on a number of deals, including its 2016 IPO. With a market capitalisation of £179m, NSF is looking to seize an opportunity to bolt on the floundering but much larger finance group, which is currently valued at £1.3bn.

Investors are yet to respond to the offer.