Law Firm of the Year - Transactions
Addleshaw Goddard
Addleshaw Goddard's PE practice stands out this year for growth – in clients, revenue and geographical footprint.
The judging period saw AG advising over 25 UK investors on over 90 deals, a volume consistent with the previous year, but with double the aggregate deal value (approx. £8bn). We have made headlines for expanding our office footprint with the establishment of a Dublin presence (since Spring 2022, now active on a number of mandates for UK PE investors) as well as Luxembourg – building on other recent openings in Paris, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich alongside our 6 offices in the UK. Despite a more challenging deals environment since last summer, our UK PE revenue has increased by circa 20% this year (with growth of 15-20% p.a. being achieved across each of the last 5 years), advising on deals from £10m to £1bn+, and being ranked no.1 law firm for UK deal count in H1 2023 by mergermarket.
We believe that no other UK headquartered law firm has demonstrated such ambitious growth in private equity in recent times – and our performance in 2022-23 is further evidence of this.
Browne Jacobson
Browne Jacobson’s award-winning private equity team comprises over 50 expert corporate, private equity, venture capital, banking & finance, tax and employment lawyers that have a deep understanding of the intricate nuances involved in complex UK and cross-border private equity transactions.
The firm works with a rich, diverse and longstanding portfolio of domestic and international clients across a broad range of sectors. This includes some leading private equity investment houses and management teams that have strong regional, national, and international profile. In 2022/23, more of our deals than ever, were cross border in nature and in excess of £100m EV including a multibillion pound transaction in the waste sector.
Browne Jacobson's private equity lawyers provide industry leading insights and are committed to consistently delivering innovative and strategic solutions which supports its clients in navigating the challenging regulatory landscape and capitalise on the many opportunities for growth that are presented the highly competitive private equity landscape.
Browne Jacobson has a strong reputation for providing high quality legal services and commercial advice and for the client centric approach it takes to each transaction, ensuring that its clients feel they are in safe hands and achieve their business objectives seamlessly. These qualities underpin the firm’s position as a trusted and respected legal partner in the private equity and corporate finance sectors.
CMS
The period between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023 was exceptionally busy for the CMS PE team in the UK. We completed 120 transactions worth over £15.8 billion.
During this time we advised on many innovative transactions, including the acquisition by Macquarie Asset Management and British Columbia Investment Management of a 60% stake in National Grid’s UK gas transmission and metering business, quoted as ‘a mammoth deal’ by The Lawyer and resulting in the team winning PE team of the year Success for CMS at The Lawyer Awards.
We also acted for Phoenix Equity Partners on its investment in 4most, a provider of risk analytics and modelling products to banks and insurers. 4most was a majority employee-owned, employee ownership trust. The move to private ownership is one of the first of its kind and was widely reported in mainstream news.
We also acted for Synova on its investment into Learnlight, a leading provider of digital-first language and skills training. We provided complex structural advice across multiple jurisdictions, led from the UK.
We have also advised clients such as Horizon Capital on multiple investments into the professional services space, with such transactions typically necessitating complex structuring work.
Eversheds Sutherland
We have continued to expand our international reach and to strengthen our private equity practice and our ability to service UK houses on their outbound deals and international houses on their inbound deals. We have 100+ private equity lawyers acting for numerous different houses. The majority of our deals come from houses with which we have long term relationships having become their trusted advisers.
We continue to be a leader in UK Mid-market Private Equity, demonstrating significant annual growth in our practice in the City and internationally as our brand and average deal size increase. Recent deals include advising Inflexion on the sale of the £1bn plus sale of Phenna to Oakley Capital; Palatine on the acquisition of a majority stake in Anthesis by Carlyle; H2 Equity Partners on the acquisition of a majority stake in Optegra by MidEuropa; Livingbridge on its investment in T-Pro and the sale of Direct Ferries to ICG; Arcline and MMT on the acquisitions of Somex Automation and Ward Automation; the shareholders of Acora on the investment by LDC; and Apollo-owned Celeros on the sale of its filtration business to Px3 Partner.
We add value with in-depth sector expertise by drawing on the comprehensive sector based knowledge and expertise across our 11 dedicated cross-practice sector groups.
Macfarlanes LLP
Our private equity transactional practice is ranked as Tier 1 for mid-market private equity by leading legal directories, reflecting the breadth of our experience and the strength and depth of our specialist practice in this area. We have a strong track record of acting for sponsors, lenders and management teams across the market; one of the hallmarks of our practice is the range of types of transactions on which we have advised.
As well as the typical leveraged buyouts and auction sale processes that are the bread and butter of any private equity practice, we have extensive experience of advising on many other forms of transaction, not matched by many other firms, including minority growth investments, dividend recaps, take privates, strategic third party investments and joint ventures, IPOs, carve-outs, continuation funds and rollover investments on exit, each of which present their own esoteric issues; the more challenging the transaction the more value we can add to the process.
Proskauer Rose
Comprised of 30+ lawyers in London and 130+ globally, Proskauer’s Private Equity Transactions team has one of the premier international practices. The team has a sharp focus on key growth sectors such as financial services (including payment processing, insurance and asset manager M&A), TMT (including cyber-risk and data), business services, industrials and consumer (including food and beverage & hospitality).
Through our visibility on multiple deals across the market we are seeing an increase in the following deal types: separations and carve-out transactions; restructuring and distressed transactions; continuation funds; portfolio company M&A; and UK public to privates. As far as sectors, the team is on the pulse of the increasing prevalence of ESG and certain specialist tech sectors (e.g. AI, payment facilitators), and in sectors that are, or are perceived to be, inflation protected (e.g. healthcare). For example, on the ESG-related front, we advised Leon Capital on its acquisition of a majority stake in Xynteo, a strategic advisory firm exclusively dedicated to providing sustainability and energy transition services; and in specialist tech, for example we advised Paytrix on its investment rounds involving Hambro Perks and Bain Capital Ventures, The Fintech Fund and a number of notable angel investors.