Bank lending – company side
Bank lending – sponsor side
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden, in line with its reputation, is best placed on the borrower and sponsor sides of the market. While all US firms have an advantage when it comes to US corporate borrowing, it is notable that Skadden is cited most often as the firm best suited to guiding US companies through matters relating to UK and wider European inbound investment and acquistions....
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Skadden, in line with its reputation, is best placed on the borrower and sponsor sides of the market. While all US firms have an advantage when it comes to US corporate borrowing, it is notable that Skadden is cited most often as the firm best suited to guiding US companies through matters relating to UK and wider European inbound investment and acquistions.
The firm's bank side practice is also notable and while not as large can still boast relationships with key investment banks like Credit Suisse.
Deals
Skadden's corporate client base ensures that it maintains a strong pipeline of borrower and sponsor side mandates. One substantial example from last year saw Pete Coulton act for Doughty Hanson on the facilities granted for its acquisition of the Equity Trust and its subsequent refinancing. Similar work saw Clive Wells acting for the Colifax Corporation on the $2.1 billion senior facilities advanced to it for its acquisition of Charter International and Mark Daley advising OutoKumpu Oyj on the facilities granted to it for the acquisition of stainless steel producer Inoxum.
Bank side work included Daley and Wells' advice to Credit Suisse on the financing provided to TPG Capital for the acquisition of Luxembourg hedge fund administrator GlobeOp Financial Services.
In line with the market the team also worked on combined bank/bond work including advice on £150 million of secured facilities for Eco-Bat Technologies and a subsequent €300 million high-yield issue.
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Leading lawyers
Pete Coulton
Mark Darley
Clive Wells
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden is led by Rick Ely and James Healy in terms of US and UK law respectively. The firm, like many of its US contemporaries, has a focus and a strength on underwriter mandates and the sheer number of banking clients it represents is testament to its success in this area....
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Skadden is led by Rick Ely and James Healy in terms of US and UK law respectively. The firm, like many of its US contemporaries, has a focus and a strength on underwriter mandates and the sheer number of banking clients it represents is testament to its success in this area.
Deals
On the bank side last year Pranav Trivedi and Danny Trictot advised the joint bookrunning managers including Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, HSBC and RBS on a $2.2 billion Rule144A notes offering by VimpelCom Holdings. Tricot also advised the joint lead managers including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and HSBC Holdings on a $5 billion Rule144A/Reg S bond offering by the State of Qatar on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
On the company side, James McDonald acted alongside the Paris team advising reinsurance company SCOR on its SFr400 million (£265 million) offering of fixed to floating rate notes and SFr225 million fixed to floating rate step-up notes.
Finally the team acted for the dealer manager on the offer for fixed rate covered bonds offered by the National Bank of Greece. The deal saw the bank increase its tier one capital by approximately €302 million.
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Leading lawyers
Rick Ely
James Healy
Danny Tricot
Capital markets – equity
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden's equity team is growing in stature. The firm's reputation in corporate matters puts them in a good position to excel in the equity space and its slim but talented team of partners in London has been involved in a number of the market's few headline IPOs in the last 12 months....
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Skadden's equity team is growing in stature. The firm's reputation in corporate matters puts them in a good position to excel in the equity space and its slim but talented team of partners in London has been involved in a number of the market's few headline IPOs in the last 12 months.
Clients highlight the firm's ability to communicate with US corporates as a key strength and put it ahead of its compatriots in this regard. Another clear strength is the firm's Russian office and this is backed up by its work on deal such as the Ros Agro IPO.
Rick Ely and James Healy lead the practice with peers pointing to them in addition to Rich Muglia and Danny Tricot as the key London partners.
Deals
Like US contemporary Cleary Gottlieb, Skadden can point to a strong track record in Russian linked deals, which has been a boon in recent years with relatively low activity outside of this space.
An example of this is the work done by Richard Muglia and Danny Tricot on the $330 million IPO of food producer Ros Agro on the LSE. Tricot was again involved, this time alongside Tim Sanders on the listing of American Depositary Shares (ADS) by Gazprom on the LSE, the deal also involved a blocklisting of further ADS issuance.
Before the markets shut down at the end of spring last year the firm had been on a good run of mandates including Muglia and Tricot's advise to the underwriters on the substantial Samsonite IPO in Hong Kong; advice to the sponsors and underwriters respectively in the secondary listings of mining companies Kazakhmys and Mechel; and James Healy and James McDonald's work for Banco Comercial Português (Millennium BCP) on its €1.25 billion capital increase in May last year consisting of a €990 million exchange offer and a €260 million rights offering.
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Leading lawyers
Rick Ely
James Healy
Richard Muglia
Danny Tricot
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
While Skadden does not have the dedicated high-yield capacity in the UK as some peers, the firm's broader debt practice takes care of clients' needs.
DealsOne bank side deal last year saw Pranav Trivedi and Alexey Kiyashko act for Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citgroup Global Markets and RBS as lead managers on a $1....
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While Skadden does not have the dedicated high-yield capacity in the UK as some peers, the firm's broader debt practice takes care of clients' needs.
Deals
One bank side deal last year saw Pranav Trivedi and Alexey Kiyashko act for Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citgroup Global Markets and RBS as lead managers on a $1.5 billion high-yield issue by Vimpel Communications.
On the issuer side, Hilary Foulkes and James McDonald acted for Eco-Bat Finance on a €300 million offering of senior notes. The team also acted for SEAT on the restructuring of €750 million in senior secured notes and €1.3 billion in senior secured bonds.
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Financial services regulatory – non- contentious
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden is one of a number of US firms who are looking to boost their regulatory practices in the City in order to offer a more rounded offering to clients. In Skadden's case this resulted in the firm hiring Patrick Brandt from Dundas & Wilson who has immediately been installed as head of department....
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Skadden is one of a number of US firms who are looking to boost their regulatory practices in the City in order to offer a more rounded offering to clients. In Skadden's case this resulted in the firm hiring Patrick Brandt from Dundas & Wilson who has immediately been installed as head of department.
Brandt's stated ambition is to build a stand-alone practice, however he and his team will also providing support to the firm's high profile corporate and finance teams.
Deals
The firm's regulatory department picked up work this year on matters relating to M&A transactions. Patrick Brandt provided regulatory advice on both Alpha Bank's proposed merger with EFG Eurobank and a Chinese investment bank on its acquisition of UK regulated entities.
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Leading lawyers
Patrick Brandt
Investment funds – private funds
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Skadden's brand is synonymous with corporate/M&A across the globe and while its UK team does not have or attempt to match the capacity of its magic-circle rivals, the quality of its partners is right up there with the best.Department head Michael Hatchard is held up by clients as one of the firm's stars and is highlighted for his ability in one of the firm's stocks in trade, i....
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Skadden's brand is synonymous with corporate/M&A across the globe and while its UK team does not have or attempt to match the capacity of its magic-circle rivals, the quality of its partners is right up there with the best.
Department head Michael Hatchard is held up by clients as one of the firm's stars and is highlighted for his ability in one of the firm's stocks in trade, i.e. US investment into the UK: "He's one of the best corporate partners I've worked with at any firm in the City," says one bank client. "He is unusual in that he is quite mid-Atlantic, what he brings is the sort of credibility and knowledge that you'd expect from one of the Magic-circle firms but he also understands how American corporates work, which when you're dealing with large public takeovers, is pretty key actually."
The firm's compact team in London is actually seen as a strength by its clientele as the firm's more selective approach to mandates guarantees that its big names are normally involved if the firm signs up to a transaction. "If it's a situation of scale in the UK and Skadden are involved, you know Michael is going to be involved, which is incredibly helpful," says another client.
Deals
Last year Scott Simpson and Lorenzo Corte acted for Greece's Alpha Bank in regard to its merger with Eurobank. The combination creates the largest bank in south-eastern Europe with assets in the region of $212 million. The firm also advised on additional connected work including a €500 million investment by the Qatar sovereign wealth fund and a €1 billion capital raising.
Simpson also acted alongside Michael Hatchard, Shaun Lascelles, James McDonald, Danny Tricot, Clive Wells and Tim Sanders advising the Colfaz Corporation on its acquisition of Charter International for $2.4 billion in September 2011.
In African related deals the team advised Vitol Group and Helios Investment Partners on their acquisition of a majority stake in Shell's African downstream oil and gas businesses. In the same sector Hunter Baker acted for the Kazakh Oil & Gas Company on its $334 million sale of AktauNefteService to National Company KazMunayGas.
In the heavy industry sector Simpson acted for Outokumpu, the Finnish stainless steel group on its €2.8 billion acquisition of ThyssenKrupp's stainless steel unit.
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Leading lawyers
Michael Hatchard
Adrian Knight
Scott Simpson
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Alan Murray-Jones heads up Skadden's private equity team, which while not as well known as its corporate M&A practice nevertheless has some good clients in the UK market including Doughty Hanson and JC Flowers.
The firm has also added breadth to the team with the addition of funds partner Stephen Sims from Macfarlanes....
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Alan Murray-Jones heads up Skadden's private equity team, which while not as well known as its corporate M&A practice nevertheless has some good clients in the UK market including Doughty Hanson and JC Flowers.
The firm has also added breadth to the team with the addition of funds partner Stephen Sims from Macfarlanes.
Deals
On the buy side one standout deal saw Shaun Lascelles acted for Helios Investment Partners and the Vitol Group on their acquisition of an 80% stake in the downstream oil operations of Royal Dutch Shell, the deal complicated by the fact that these assets are scattered across 14 countries.
The firm also picked up two notable deals for key client Doughty Hanson including the £250 million acquisition of a majority stake in the ASCO Group and the sale of the Clean Process Technology division of the Norit Group to Pentair for €503 million. Allan Murray-Jones acted on both deals.
Finally Chris Baker, Mark Darley and Clive Wells advised JC Flowers & Co on the €832 million LBO of a controlling stake in loan insurance grocer Compagnie Européenne de Prévoyance (CEP) from PAI Paetners.
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Restructuring – debt
Restructuring – bond holder and fund representation
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Chris Mallon's restructuring team was expanded last year with the hire of Dominic McCahill from Weil Gotshal in January 2012. The firm is primarily focused on corporate restructuring and bankruptcy matters....
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Chris Mallon's restructuring team was expanded last year with the hire of Dominic McCahill from Weil Gotshal in January 2012. The firm is primarily focused on corporate restructuring and bankruptcy matters.
Deals
One of the firm's largest mandates last year saw it advise Tele Columbus on its successful restructuring by way of a debt transfer and debt for equity swap. Similar work was also undertaken for shipping company Torm on its restructuring.
On the debt restructuring side the team acted for Travelport on a restructuring of $3.8 billion of debt.
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Leading lawyers
Chris Mallon
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