Lafarge brought in by Lawrence Graham on Wilmington deal

Lawrence Graham has called on its Paris-based best friend Lafarge Flecheux Campana Le Blevennec to act on Wilmington Group’s first major deal outside the UK, the acquisition of Agence de Presse Medicale Internationale (APM) from Reuters.

Both Lawrence Graham and Lafarge are acting on the £5.3m acquisition of the French real-time health newswire. Although Lawrence Graham has a longstanding relationship with Wilmington through corporate partner Sunil Kakkad, this is the first time the firm has acted for the listed business information group on an overseas deal.

Kakkad, who led the Lawrence Graham team, said Wilmington is likely to expand further in the future. “I don’t think it’s going to be exclusively France, but as they [Wilmington] expand, they’ll be looking for deals both in the UK and overseas,” he said.

It is also the first time that Lafarge, the French member firm of LG International, Lawrence Graham’s closely-knit European alliance of independent law firms, has received instructions from Wilmington, which it scooped following a recommendation from Lawrence Graham.
“Lawrence Graham recommended Lafarge to Wilmington because it’s part of the [firm’s] international network. The association is quite closed, so the likelihood is that we would go to Lafarge again,” commented Kakkad.

APM and its wholly-owned subsidiary APM Media SARL provide a real-time French language health news information service to subscribers, including hospital managers, general practitioners, pharmaceutical companies and government and public bodies.

The acquisition of APM will enable Wilmington to develop further its publishing and information interests for the healthcare and pharmaceuticals markets.

Reuters was advised by in-houser Matthew Foss and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Paris office.