Landmark deals

Clients regularly turn to us on some of their biggest and most strategic mandates, below is a selection of some of the transformational, cross-border public M&A deals our team has worked on in recent years:

• Ahli United Bank: on the USD8.8bn recommended acquisition of AUB by Kuwait Finance House, the largest ever cross-border public takeover in the GCC
• Takeda Pharmaceutical Company: in relation to its £46bn recommended offer for Shire, the largest ever outbound M&A deal by a Japanese company
• SABMiller: on the recommended USD108bn offer from Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest UK takeover and the third largest global M&A deal in history and SABMiller on the disposal of its stake in Tsogo Sun
• Unilever: on the successful defence to the USD145bn approach from Kraft-Heinz
• Vodafone: on its £112bn hostile bid for Mannesmann, the first successful hostile bid for a German company
• E.ON: on the EUR43bn public takeover of a 76.8% stake in Innogy and on the planned extensive swap of assets between E.ON and RWE
• Cheung Kong Holdings: on the USD103bn merger with Hutchison Whampoa - the largest Hong Kong public M&A in history
• Glencore: on its USD90bn merger of equals with Xstrata

Recent deals

Below are a selection of some of our most recent public M&A deals from our offices around the world.

UK

• Caesars Entertainment: advising on its £2.9bn recommended cash offer for William Hill
• Just Eat: on the agreed £6.26bn all-share merger with Takeaway.com and on its defence of the hostile £5.5bn cash offer by Prosus
• City Developments: on its recommended £2.23bn cash offer for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
• Advent International Corporation: on the £4bn recommended cash offer for Cobham plc, and on its recommended £1bn cash offer for Laird
• Greene King: on the £2.7bn recommended cash offer by CK Asset Holdings
• UBM: on the recommended £3.9bn cash and share offer by Informa

Mainland Europe

• Belgium: Ablynx: on the €3.9bn public takeover bid made by Sanofi on Ablynx
• Spain: SIX Group: on the €2.8bn public takeover bid made for Bolsas y Mercados Españoles
• Spain: Corporación Financiera Alba: on the €630m public takeover offer launched for Parques Reunidos
• Germany: Commerzbank: on the €380m sale of its Equity Markets & Commodities business to the French bank Société Générale
• Germany: ams: advising on the €3.6bn public takeover of Osram Licht
• Netherlands: Recruit: on its €1.42bn all-cash tender offer for all USG People shares
• Netherlands: Delhaize: on its €26bn merger with Netherlands-based listed retailer Ahold
• Paris: BPIfrance on the contemplated €160m tender offer of Wordline on Ingenico Group

Asia

• China: China Three Gorges: on its USD10.6bn public tender offer for Energias de Portugal, Portugal’s largest energy company
• China: UBS: on its CNY 858m acquisition of 12.01% and 14% equity interests in UBS Securities, becoming the first foreign-controlled securities company approved by the CSRC in China’s further opening-up
• Japan: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation: advising on the JPY820m merger squeeze-out of minority shareholders in its subsidiary NTT Com Security
• Singapore: J Trust Co Ltd: advising this Tokyo-listed financial services company on its USD93m acquisition of approximately 29.5% of Singapore-listed LCD Global Investments
• Hong Kong: China International Capital Corporation: on the USD25.9bn merger of China’s train makers, CSR Corporation and China CNR Corporation, through a securities exchange offer effected through a Chinese law-governed merger by absorption

USA

• Sibanye Gold: on its USD2.2bn acquisition of Stillwater Mining Company and related equity issuance
• Xtep International Holdings: on its USD260m acquisition of a 100% stake in E-Land Footwear USA Holdings, the owner of the K-Swiss, Palladium and Supra brands