Karen Davies, AshurstAshurst's Karen Davies Tops UK M&A Partner Rankings for H1 2019
The firm's London corporate head has worked on four deals worth £7 billion since January, the latest rankings show.
July 10, 2019 at 07:30 AM
2 minute read
Ashurst partner Karen Davies has topped a table of U.K. corporate partners for having worked on the most valuable deals in the first six months of 2019.
According to data from Mergermarket, Davies has worked on four deals – where at least one of the sides of the deal was based in the U.K. – worth a combined total of just over £7 billion ($8.75 billion).
Davies is head of Ashurst's corporate practice in London and specialises in M&A and capital markets. She was also listed as the most prolific adviser by value for the whole year in 2017, having worked on six takeovers of U.K. companies worth a combined £12.7 billion. ($15.9 billion)
The figure puts her ahead of rivals at the likes of Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Top deals for Davies in the first half of this year have included advising investment bank Lazard on the £4.77 billion ($6 billion) recommended cash offer for Merlin Entertainments, the owner of Legoland, and advising Merrill Lynch International in relation to the £1.9 billion ($2.4 billion) recommended cash offer for used vehicle company BCA Marketplace by private equity firm TDR Capital.
"This year we haven't seen the mega-mergers we had last year, which were share-for-share mergers," Davies said. "We're seeing less of that because there are concerns for the equity capital markets and political and economic volatility. I think that is a theme that will continue throughout this year and that has influenced the market to date."
Davies' colleague Tom Mercer placed fifth in the same rankings, having worked on five deals worth £6 billion ($7.5 billion), just ahead of Slaughters' Andy Ryde and Paul Mudie who each worked on three deals worth £5.77 billion ($7.2 billion), putting them in joint sixth place.
Other partners to have featured in the rankings include Freshfields' Douglas Smith Jr, who worked on two deals worth £5.69 billion ($7.1 billion); Will Pearce at Davis Polk & Wardwell, who worked on three deals worth £5.2 million ($6.5 million); and Ashurst's Tim Rennie, who worked on two deals worth £5.19 million ($6.49 million).
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