Freshfields sees Goldman et al through APB offer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has landed the lead advisory role for a Goldman Sachs-led consortium on its £2.4bn bid for Associated British Ports (ABP).

The consortium, which includes Borealis Infrastructure Management, GIC Special Investments and Goldman Sachs, made an 810p per share offer for ABP last week. The ABP board has granted the consortium time to undertake confirmatory due diligence.

The bid came after ABP announced it had received an informal approach by the consortium at the beginning of the month.

Freshfields corporate partners Edward Braham and David Higgins are lead advisers to the consortium. O'Melveny & Myers corporate partner Chris Ashworth is advising consortium member GIC, while Canadian firm Torys is acting for the third member, Borealis.

ABP has instructed regular adviser Slaughter and May. Slaughters corporate finance partner Richard de Carle is leading the team advising on the bid.

If the consortium's bid is successful, it will be the first major corporate deal that ABP general counsel Andrew Garner has worked on since taking up the new role in October last year.