Telecoms work sparks deals hike
It will come as a surprise to many that announced first quarter deals for Europe were up a staggering 54 per cent on the first quarter of last year, according to the Thomson Financial tables released last week. However, deals completed in the same period were 20 per cent lower than this time last year.
The increase on announced deals, based on European targets with any acquirer nation, was largely attributable to the continued telecoms and energy consolidation, in particular Olivetti's $28.6bn (£18.25bn) plans to acquire the remaining interest in Telecom Italia and Gas Natural's hostile bid for Iberdrola of Spain for $29m (£18.5m).
The Olivetti deal saw Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Bonelli Erede Pappalardo and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom catapulted into four of the top five places.
Linklaters took the number one spot in terms of value and number of deals announced, but the other magic circle firms were some way behind. In terms of value, Allen & Overy dropped from second to tenth place, Clifford Chance fell from third to eighth, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer dropped from ninth to thirteenth.
Slaughter and May fell 15 to 21st place, with its value of announced deals dropping from $17.23bn (£10.99bn) to just $3.42bn (£2.18bn). However, not included in the tables are some of the firm's more high-profile work such as the Safeway and 6 Continents bids.
Jones Day Gouldens jumped to ninth place following the merger. Head of corporate Hilary Winter attributed the placing to a few high-value deals, as well as a good deal flow. The firm was fourth in terms of number of deals on which it advised.
The table for deals completed makes for quite different reading. In this table Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Freshfields take first, second and third place respectively, with A&O holding the seventh spot that it had this time last year.
All, however, were significantly down on last year in terms of value. Slaughters failed to break into the top 25.
| Top 25 firms based on deals with European target, any acquirer nation | ||||||||||
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| 1/1/03-31/3/03 | 1/1/03-31/3/03 | Change in rank value (%) | ||||||||
| Adviser | Rank | Rank value $bn (£bn) | Market share | Number of deals | Rank | Rank value $bn (£bn) | ||||
| Linklaters | 1 | 60.48 (38.59) | 37.9 | 53 | 1 | 44.33 (28.28) | 36.4 | |||
| Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson | 2 | 35.65 (22.75) | 22.3 | 3 | 41 | 0.96 (0.61) | 3,614.7 | |||
| Bonelli Erede Pappalardo | 3 | 32.90 (20.99) | 20.6 | 13 | 36 | 1.08 (0.69) | 2,952.2 | |||
| Davis Polk & Wardwell | 4 | 32.61 (20.81) | 20.4 | 5 | 17 | 6.69 (4.27) | 387.3 | |||
| Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom | 5 | 30.89 (19.71) | 19.4 | 5 | 10 | 11.76 (7.50) | 162.7 | |||
| Suarez de Lezo & Asociados | 6 | 29.74 (18.98) | 18.6 | 1 | - | - | - | |||
| Chiomenti Studio Legale | 7 | 29.20 (18.63) | 18.3 | 3 | - | - | - | |||
| Clifford Chance | 8 | 27.88 (17.79) | 17.5 | 40 | 3 | 21.58 (13.77) | 29.2 | |||
| Jones Day | 9 | 18.23 (11.63) | 11.4 | 37 | 53 | 0.56 (0.36) | 3,132.7 | |||
| Allen & Overy | 10 | 13.57 (8.66) | 8.5 | 39 | 2 | 28.60 (18.25) | -52.6 | |||
| Herbert Smith/Gleiss Lutz/Stibbe | 11 | 13.16 (8.40) | 8.3 | 22 | 21 | 3.43 (2.19) | 283.8 | |||
| Ashurst Morris Crisp | 12 | 12.61 (8.05) | 7.9 | 16 | 8 | 14.07 (8.98) | -10.3 | |||
| Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | 13 | 11.44 (7.30) | 7.2 | 25 | 9 | 12.34 (7.87) | -7.3 | |||
| CMS Cameron McKenna | 14 | 9.07 (5.79) | 5.7 | 24 | 18 | 6.57 (4.19) | 38.2 | |||
| Shearman & Sterling | 15 | 8.93 (5.70) | 5.6 | 7 | 4 | 20.37 (13.00) | -56.1 | |||
| Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek | 16 | 7.03 (4.49) | 4.4 | 1 | - | - | - | |||
| Weil Gotshal & Manges | 17 | 6.34 (4.05) | 4.0 | 13 | 16 | 8.32 (5.31) | -23.8 | |||
| Norton Rose | 18 | 6.10 (3.89) | 3.8 | 5 | 54 | 0.53 (0.34) | 1,059.3 | |||
| Travers Smith Braithwaite | 19 | 5.92 (3.78) | 3.7 | 6 | 60 | 0.33 (0.21) | 1,691.3 | |||
| Simmons & Simmons | 20 | 3.43 (2.19) | 2.2 | 11 | 22 | 3.08 (1.97) | 11.6 | |||
| Slaughter and May | 21 | 3.42 (2.18) | 2.2 | 16 | 6 | 17.23 (10.99) | -80.1 | |||
| Niederer Kraft & Frey | 22 | 3.34 (2.13) | 2.1 | 4 | - | - | - | |||
| Hengeler Mueller | 23 | 3.02 (1.93) | 1.9 | 9 | 5 | 17.52 (11.18) | -82.8 | |||
| Lenz & Staehelin | 24 | 2.74 (1.75) | 1.7 | 4 | - | - | - | |||
| White & Case | 25 | 2.61 (1.67) | 1.6 | 10 | 7 | 14.66 (9.53) | -82.2 | |||
| Source: Thomson Financial | ||||||||||
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