Bridgepoint Capital has handed a key role to Allen & Overy (A&O) alongside Travers Smith after the private equity firm invited advisers to pitch.

The London-headquartered firm is understood to have held the tender process earlier this year, with the magic circle firm handed key mandates as a result.

About seven law firms were invited to pitch, with the group also understood to have included US firms such as Latham & Watkins.

Travers has a longstanding relationship with Bridgepoint, acting on the lion's share of the PE house's UK work, and earlier this year advised on its sale of Pret a Manger to German investment group JAB Holdings. Bridgepoint's general counsel is ex-Travers partner Charles Barter, who moved over in 2008 after more than a decade as head of Travers' private equity group.

Meanwhile, previous roles A&O has taken for Bridgepoint have included the $500m sale of Spanish asset Bora Wind Energy Management to Exus Management Partners in 2016. The magic circle firm has been looking to build out its relationships with buyout houses under the leadership of private equity head Stephen Lloyd, with expansion in Germany, France and Spain on the agenda.

Bridgepoint is understood to have last formally reviewed its legal advisers – which in the past have included firms such as Shearman & Sterling, Linklaters, Weil Gotshal & Manges and Addleshaw Goddard – in 2011.

Linklaters won its first UK Bridgepoint mandate in 2007, when it advised on the acquisition of Gambro Healthcare, while Weil won a first-time role advising Bridgepoint in 2005, when a conflict at Travers handed it a role on the $535m bid for environmental consultancy Environmental Resources Management from 3i.

Travers, A&O and Bridgepoint declined to comment. Latham was contacted for comment.