Skadden latest to scoop Barclays/ABN role

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is the latest firm to have grabbed a key role on the landmark £45.5bn merger between ABN Amro and Barclays.

The New York-headquartered firm represented Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Cazenove and Lazard as financial advisers to Barclays.

London-based corporate stars Michael Hatchard and Scott Simpson led the Skadden team along with corporate partner Rick Ely on the deal that will create the world’s fifth largest bank.

Yesterday (Monday 23 April), Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz revelead that it was advising Bank of America in the $21bn (£10.5bn) spin-off of ABN Amro’s US operations, LaSalle, as part of the merger agreement with Barclays.

Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising ABN Amro in that deal, and is also advising the bank in the general merger talks, along with Allen & Overy and Nauta Dutilh. Stibbe is advising the bank’s supervisory board.

Clifford Chance and Sullivan & Cromwell are advising Barclays.

The spin-off of the US operations looks to have left a rival consortium, comprising Linklaters’ client Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Santander and Fortis, advised by Slaughter and May, Willkie Farr & Gallagher and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, out in the cold.