Linklaters‘ London private equity team has scooped its first instruction from Montagu Private Equity.
The magic circle firm has won a mandate to advise Montagu on its £860m leveraged buyout of Linpac, the family-owned UK packaging group. Montagu (formerly HSBC Private Equity) has existing relationships with Clifford Chance, Macfarlanes and DLA.
Macfarlanes was unable to advise Montagu because it was acting for the management, but it is understood that neither Clifford Chance nor DLA were conflicted out of the deal.
Linklaters’ Paris office has acted for Montagu for some time, but has previously failed to cross-sell the relationship. Recently, the Paris office advised the private equity house on its acquisition of the Actaris group from LBO France. According to a Linklaters source, the firm has been actively targeting Montagu in London and until recently had seen little success for its efforts.
Montagu has also seen Linklaters work on the other side of deals: the firm advised HSBC on the sale of its 80 per cent interest in Montagu to its executives in March and it acted for Dignity Funerals on its sale to Montagu last year.
Linklaters’ mandate to advise Montagu follows hot on the heels of instructions from new private equity house Candover. Earlier in the month the firm acted for Candover on the acquisition of its majority stake in part of the Anglo-Dutch private bank Insinger de Beaufort for £141.5m.
The Montagu deal was structured through a newly-established financing vehicle called Linpac Ltd, set up by Montagu and Linpac’s senior management. It has been reported that the chairman and son of Linpac’s founder Michael Cornish will remain on the board as a non-executive director. The deal is subject to antitrust clearances being obtained in seven jurisdictions, as well as two other additional clearances in Australia and Guernsey.
The Linklaters team is being led by managing associate Raymond McKeeve.
The sellers, the current shareholders of Linpac, are being advised by longstanding adviser Berwin Lieghton Paisner.
Deutsche Bank, the senior and mezzanine lender, and HSBC, which provided an equity bridge facility, were advised by White & Case and Norton Rose respectively.