C&W enlists MBR&M for Guernsey deal

Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw worked alongside Cable & Wireless' (C&W) in-house legal team on the company's £22.5m acquisition of state-owned Guernsey Telecom. Guernsey Telecom was represented by Simmons & Simmons, which also has a relationship with C&W and Guernsey firm Collas Day. Squire Sanders & Dempsey represented the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
"We were instructed on this deal after C&W had chosen its lawyers," said Simmons partner Charles Mayo. Guernsey Telecom was a new client for Simmons. Although it came through a referral, Simmons got the work from a member of the Guernsey Telecom board who chose it because of a connection with telecoms partner Tom Wheadon.
Simmons also has a strong relationship with Pacific Century Cyberworks, which its Hong Kong office advised on a merger with C&W in 2000.
Rowe & Maw was instructed on this deal last autumn, before its merger with US firm Mayer Brown & Platt at the beginning of 2002. It represented C&W in a bidding process to buy 100 per cent of the Bailiwick of Guernsey's share capital in Guernsey Telecom. Under the terms of the agreement, C&W has committed an additional £5.2m into Guernsey's e-business infrastructure and a potential £26m in additional service developments over the next three years.
C&W is a longstanding top 10 client of the Rowe & Maw side of the newly merged firm. Partner Richard Page, who led the Guernsey Telecom deal, said that the C&W relationship had not yet extended across the Atlantic, where the company has strong links with Shaw Pittman. The two sides of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw do have complementary telecoms practices, however, and Marconi was a common client pre-merger.
"C&W does have US needs but we are still bedding down our merger. The company has yet to meet our new partners in the US," Page said.