Clifford Chance and Linklaters among firms on Cinven's £465m pharma deal
Clifford Chance and Linklaters were part of a string of City firms advising on private equity group Cinven’s £465m acquisition of generic drugs company Mercury Pharma from HgCapital.
Brendan Moylan
Addleshaw Goddard, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Eversheds also won roles on the takeover, which comes two and a half years after HgCapital took the UK pharmaceuticals group private in a management buyout (MBO) in 2009.
Clifford Chance advised Cinven, fielding a team led on the corporate side by partners Brendan Moylan and Jonny Myers. Other members of the City team were finance partner Roderick McGillivray, advising on the debt side, and corporate associates Toby Parkinson and Mark Storrie.
Linklaters London private equity partners Alex Woodward and Richard Youle led for HgCapital.
BLP advised the management of Mercury Pharma, with corporate finance partners Michael Weir and Raymond McKeeve leading. Corporate finance associate Simon Arlington also advised.
Eversheds partner Mark Spinner advised one of the selling shareholders, the former management of Goldshield, which rebranded as Mercury Pharma earlier this year.
Addleshaws also took a role for a minority Mercury Pharma shareholder, with corporate finance partner Richard Thomas and associate Mark Hough forming the advisory team.
Background to this deal:
Linklaters’ Youle, a longstanding adviser to HgCapital on deals, was among the team advising the private equity house when it backed the 2009 MBO of Goldshield, now Mercury Pharma. Eversheds’ Spinner acted for Goldshield’s management (9 November 2009).
