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International Edition

China telecoms giant calls on Slaughters and Freshfields to advise on restructuring

Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have won roles on a major restructuring of the Chinese telecoms market worth around $72bn (£36.3bn). Freshfields has taken the lead for China Unicom - the country's second largest mobile operator - on its intended merger with landline provider China Netcom and its disposal of mobile network CDMA to China Telecom.
2 minute read

International Edition

Maclays takes lead on £350m Grampian buy-out

Maclay Murray & Spens has landed a role opposite Anglo-American Mayer Brown on the £350m acquisition of meat supplier Grampian Country Food Group by Vion. Scottish leader Maclays took the lead role for Grampian, with Aberdeen chief Alastair Wyper leading the team. Corporate consultant Mark Aspery assisted from the firm's London office.
1 minute read

International Edition

Dealmaker: Richard Papworth

Addleshaw Goddard banking chief Richard Papworth on Morley, Manchester United and moving back to the big smoke
5 minute read

International Edition

Sympathy for Silk Street as JPMorgan takes the hard line

"It's a disgrace" may not be the first words you would associate with a commercial decision by a bank but the expression neatly sums up opinion across the Square Mile regarding JPMorgan's decision to blacklist Linklaters thanks to its role litigating against Bear Stearns. After all, Linklaters had accepted the instruction from Barclays Capital months before the stricken lender collapsed as a result of its exposure to the plunging credit market and months before JPMorgan in March agreed to buy the bank for a fraction of its previous value. Linklaters had also been open with JPMorgan's legal team about the litigation at the time of the takeover. Initially, Linklaters had the impression that JPMorgan was taking a pragmatic stance; it is widely accepted that Linklaters' position, while commercially awkward, was not a legal conflict. But apparently, when the bank's executive team became aware of the issue, they took a rather less charitable view. Hence Linklaters being asked to stand down. Given US bar rules and its client commitments to Barclays, that gave Link-laters little option but to regretfully tough it out and see itself, temporarily at least, frozen out by one of its top banking clients.
4 minute read

Legal Week

Sympathy for Silk Street as JPMorgan takes the hard line

"It's a disgrace" may not be the first words you would associate with a commercial decision by a bank but the expression neatly sums up opinion across the Square Mile regarding JPMorgan's decision to blacklist Linklaters thanks to its role litigating against Bear Stearns. After all, Linklaters had accepted the instruction from Barclays Capital months before the stricken lender collapsed as a result of its exposure to the plunging credit market and months before JPMorgan in March agreed to buy the bank for a fraction of its previous value. Linklaters had also been open with JPMorgan's legal team about the litigation at the time of the takeover. Initially, Linklaters had the impression that JPMorgan was taking a pragmatic stance; it is widely accepted that Linklaters' position, while commercially awkward, was not a legal conflict. But apparently, when the bank's executive team became aware of the issue, they took a rather less charitable view. Hence Linklaters being asked to stand down. Given US bar rules and its client commitments to Barclays, that gave Link-laters little option but to regretfully tough it out and see itself, temporarily at least, frozen out by one of its top banking clients.
7 minute read

International Edition

Maclays, Rosenblatts win roles on talent agency buy-out

Rosenblatt Solicitors and Maclay Murray & Spens have come to the fore as a consortium led by former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil rescues talent agency Peters Fraser & Dunlop (PFD). The agency, which was hit by a spate of high-profile departures last year, has been bought from US sports and events group CSS Stellar for £4m.Rosenblatt corporate partner David Fairfield led the team for CSS, winning the instruction through a longstanding relationship with turnaround specialist and chairman David Buchler.
1 minute read

Legal Week

Maclays, Rosenblatts win roles on talent agency buy-out

Rosenblatt Solicitors and Maclay Murray & Spens have come to the fore as a consortium led by former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil rescues talent agency Peters Fraser & Dunlop (PFD). The agency, which was hit by a spate of high-profile departures last year, has been bought from US sports and events group CSS Stellar for £4m.Rosenblatt corporate partner David Fairfield led the team for CSS, winning the instruction through a longstanding relationship with turnaround specialist and chairman David Buchler.
2 minute read

International Edition

Dealmaker: Ian Hamilton

Weil Gotshal M&A partner Ian Hamilton on a memorable worst day on the job and being the butt of Cooke and Compagnoni's jokes
5 minute read

International Edition

Commentary: Stephenson Harwood pulling back from the abyss of irrelevance

It has been an unlikely and unheralded turnaround. It is not all that long ago that Stephenson Harwood was being written off as a basket case after a sustained period of poor financial and senior departures left this once-prestigious City brand teetering on the edge of if not collapse then something worse: irrelevance. And yet this month the firm has unveiled its fourth consecutive year of substantial turnover growth, with the top of the equity now sitting at £900,000. Headline figures put turnover 19% up on last year to just over £85m, while profits per equity partner have grown 17% to sit at an average of £620,000. This represents some 165% growth for a firm whose partner profits were loitering around the £200,000 mark just five years ago. And without any gross deviation from the roughly 50:50 split between equity and salaried partners. By any estimation, not bad going.
4 minute read

Legal Week

Commentary: Stephenson Harwood pulling back from the abyss of irrelevance

It has been an unlikely and unheralded turnaround. It is not all that long ago that Stephenson Harwood was being written off as a basket case after a sustained period of poor financial and senior departures left this once-prestigious City brand teetering on the edge of if not collapse then something worse: irrelevance. And yet this month the firm has unveiled its fourth consecutive year of substantial turnover growth, with the top of the equity now sitting at £900,000. Headline figures put turnover 19% up on last year to just over £85m, while profits per equity partner have grown 17% to sit at an average of £620,000. This represents some 165% growth for a firm whose partner profits were loitering around the £200,000 mark just five years ago. And without any gross deviation from the roughly 50:50 split between equity and salaried partners. By any estimation, not bad going.
7 minute read

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