Linklaters takes trophy Siemens role opposite Freshfields on rail buy
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters have taken prized mandates on Siemens’ £1.7bn acquisition of UK engineering group Invensys’s rail division.
Iain Wagstaff
The deal marks a first-time M&A appointment from Siemens for Linklaters after the German technology giant brought in new general counsel Claire Carless from Vodafone earlier this year (6 March 2012).
As part of the deal, announced today (28 November), London-headquartered Invensys will dispose of Invensys Rail to Siemens, with the total transaction value coming to£1.742bn.
The agreement includes a deal with the trustees of Invensys’s UK pension scheme comprising an upfront payment of £400m and an additional payment of £225m to a trust.
Linklaters advised Siemens, with London corporate partners Roger Barron and Iain Wagstaff leading. Others on the magic circle firm’s team included Munich corporate partner Rainer Traugott, Linklaters’ relationship partner for the Munich-headquartered company, and London corporate managing associate Ruth Roth. Partner Tim Cox advised on pensions matters.
The Siemens in-house legal team on the deal was led by Sabine Kalbitz with assistance from fellow Munich-based lawyers Thomas Lautenbach and Jürgen Liehr.
Freshfields London-based corporate finance head Barry O’Brien and City M&A co-head Ben Spiers advised Invensys. Pensions advice was provided by senior associate Andrew Murphy.
Norton Rose pensions partner Peter Ford advised Invensys’s pension scheme trustees. He was assisted by pensions associates Shane O’Reilly and Madeleine Humphrey, corporate partner Andrew Phillips and banking senior associate Gemma Long.
Traugott commented: “The transaction is a milestone in our relationship with Siemens.”
Barry O’Brien
Background to this deal:
Invensys is a longstanding client of Freshfields, but Linklaters’ relationship with Siemens is more recent and came through Munich-based Traugott. The deal is the first M&A mandate for the firm from Linklaters and comes less than a year after Carless joined the company as general counsel from another Linklaters client, Vodafone. It has previously spread its mandates out widely to firms including Freshfields and Clifford Chance.
