Archive for category: M&A News

The value of UK M&A deals dropped by 45 per cent in the first nine months of 2016, new research has found.

Despite the decline, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills and Davis Polk & Wardwell came out on top in terms of deals done.

According to data from Thomson Reuters, the combined value of UK M&A deals between the start of 2016 and now stood at $195.5bn. This compares to $354.1bn at the same point last year.

The drop in value is in spite of ARM Holdings’ takeover by Softbank for £24bn earlier this year, which gifted roles to Freshfields, Slaughter and May, Davis Polk and Morrison & Foerster.

While Freshfields continues to rule the roost in terms of UK M&A (it has worked on 56 transactions worth $77.2bn so far this year) it still lags behind Clifford Chance in the worldwide rankings.

Clifford Chance came in eleventh place globally, having acted on 177 deals worth $164.2bn this year, compared to Freshfields’ 142 transactions valued at $163.7bn.

Clifford Chance’s success in the global rankings can be in part attributed to its work in the European market, trailing just Cravath Swaine & Moore in terms of deals on the Continent. Recent top roles including working on ChemChina’s $43bn of Syngenta and Bayer’s $62bn bid for Monsanto.

While the value of UK M&A deals has dropped by 45 per cent this year, the value of European M&A deals has fallen by 25 per cent from $919bn to $734bn.

The US market has also decline, down 39 per cent on this time last year. Globally deal value has fallen nearly 50 per cent compared to last year, despite the same number of deals being announced at around 30,000 in total.

Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz takes the crown at the top of the global M&A rankings so far this year, overtaking Sullivan & Cromwell.

US corporate heavyweight Wachtell advised on 72 deals including Monsanto and Bayer, as well as Johnson Controls’ merger with Tyco. Wachtell’s transactions amounted to a deal value of $336.6bn ahead of Sullivan’s total of $335.7bn.

White & Case and Davis Polk remain in the top five, although Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has dropped slightly making way for Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. White & Case has advised on a large number of deals – a total of 204 – while Sullivan & Cromwell still leads the tables in terms of transaction value after acting on just 92 transactions since the start of this year at a value of $335.7bn.

Merger talks between U.S. firm Hunton & Williams and U.K. firm Addleshaw Goddard have stalled following the U.K.’s June vote to leave the European Union.

Partners at the firms have said that the discussions, which were first reported in May of this year but are understood to have begun at the end of 2015, have slowed down in the wake of the EU referendum in order to assess the impact of Brexit on the U.K.

“The U.S. deal is still ongoing but it has slowed because the dust hasn’t settled on Brexit yet,” an Addleshaw partner said.

The forthcoming U.S. presidential election is also understood to have played a part in the delay.

Nothing has yet been formally put to the partnership at Addleshaw but prior to the Brexit vote, talks between the two firms had progressed to a stage where there was a “sufficient degree of conformity that everyone was comfortable with the basics and the feel culturally,” according to one Addleshaw partner.

A deal between the two would create a firm with combined revenue of around £554 million ($733.14 million) and more than 1,300 lawyers.

Hunton & Williams has 14 offices across the U.S., alongside small international outposts in Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo, London and Bangkok, while Addleshaw has three U.K. offices and international offices in Dubai, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar and Singapore.

A merger would increase both firms’ coverage with relatively little overlap, as the only duplicate office is in London, where Hunton & Williams has a seven-partner base.

Addleshaw posted revenue of £201.8 million ($267.05 million) for the 2015-16 financial year, up from £192.4 million ($254.61 million) the previous year, while profit per equity partner (PEP) soared by 39 percent to £682,000 ($902,531.52), from £491,000 ($649,769.76).

The firm’s results were boosted by fees paid for mandates from previous years, partly connected to the long-running Berezovsky litigation.

In contrast, Hunton & Williams’ turnover dropped 7 percent to $528 million in 2015, making it the 62nd largest firm by revenue in the U.S. Its PEP stood at $950,000, down 5 percent.

In the past 12 months, Addleshaw has also held merger talks with Scottish firm Maclay Murray & Spens, but they were called off earlier this year after the two sides failed to come to an agreement.

Addleshaw declined to comment and Hunton & Williams did not respond to requests for comment.

Tokyo-based law firm Mori Hamada & Matsumoto has agreed to acquire a leading practice in Thailand, aiming to assist Japanese businesses as they expand their presence there and in the region.

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (Thailand) will purchase Chandler & Thong-ek for an undisclosed sum. Chandler, which is headquartered in Bangkok and employs nearly 50 attorneys, will incorporate “MHM” into its name as early as January.

Major Japanese law firms have branched out into Thailand in recent years. MHM’s Bangkok office has five attorneys. Seeing demand growing in such neighboring countries as Myanmar, the firm has decided to step up its expansion.

Thailand is the biggest destination in Southeast Asia for Japanese corporations in terms of the number of companies and the amount of direct investment, shows data from the Japan External Trade Organization. More Japanese companies are busy organizing top regional offices, and there are reportedly several cases of decisions being made in Thailand on such important matters as acquisitions and fundraising.

Since 2000, Japanese law firms have been merging domestically into practices stretching over 100 lawyers or more. Nishimura & Asahi, the biggest Japanese megafirm, employs a total of 500-plus attorneys at home and abroad. Anderson Mori & Tomotsune comes in next, with more than 400. MHM, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu and TMI Associates have about 370 lawyers each. MHM would take second place once the Thai acquisition is complete.

The growing scale of Japanese law firms has aided domestic companies in activities abroad. But international acquisitions and the like have often been handled by such non-Japanese behemoths as U.S.-based Baker & McKenzie, which employs thousands of attorneys worldwide.