Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has bumped Linklaters off the top spot for announced European deals in the second quarter of 2003, according to Thomson Financial’s worldwide M&A figures.
The US firm leaped eight places from last year’s ninth place on the back of 15 deals worth $52.08bn (£31.24bn).
Skadden’s role advising the controlling shareholders of the Russian integrated oil business Siberian Oil Company on its $36bn (£21.59bn) sale to Russian oil company Yukos, advised by LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae, partly explains the firm’s rise. It also picked up major deals in France and Spain.
The firm’s European head Bruce Buck said that the results confirm the success of its European strategy. “We’re trying to do in European M&A what we’ve successfully done in the US for 40 years,” he said. “That is to win our fair share of top cross-border M&A deals across a wide range of sectors.” The London office is currently advising Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich on his takeover of Chelsea football club.
Linklaters is the table’s leading UK firm. Its second place was secured with a mammoth 101 deals totalling $51.45bn (£30.86bn). The firm also topped the worldwide completed legal adviser rankings with a total of 114 deals worth $140.4bn (£84.22bn). It is followed in third and fourth place by Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance on $48.89bn (£29.33bn) and $47.88bn (£28.72bn) respectively.
Other significant moves in
the table include Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, which rockets into sixth place from 67th last year. The firm’s involvement in the largest announced deal of the year, Olivetti’s $28.6bn (£17.16bn) acquisition of the remaining interest in Telecom Italia, explains the firm’s progress up the charts. Meanwhile, Fried Frank’s one-time merger partner Ashusrt Morris Crisp falls from second place to tenth.
Other meteoric risers include Bonelli Erede Pappalardo (rising to seventh place from 59), Chiomenti Studio Legale (ninth from 50), and Dickson Minto, which jumps to twentieth position from last year’s 115.
| M&A deals announced – European target, any acquirer nation |
| Rank 2003 (2002) | Adviser | 1/1/03-30/6/03 | 1/1/02-30/6/02 | ||
| 2003 (2002) | Rank value $bn (£bn) | Market share | No of deals | Rank Value $m (£m) | |
| 1 (9) | Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom | 52.08 (31.24) | 21.3 | 15 | 23.84 (14.30) |
| 2 (1) | Linklaters | 51.45 (30.86) | 21.1 | 101 | 93.26 (55.94) |
| 3 (3) | Allen & Overy | 48.89 (29.33) | 20.0 | 73 | 51.40 (30.81) |
| 4 (5) | Clifford Chance | 47.88 (28.72) | 19.6 | 88 | 40.41 (24.24) |
| 5 (67) | Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson | 39.41 (23.64) | 16.2 | 11 | 0.96 (0.58) |
| 6 (-) | Gianni Origoni & Partners | 37.29 (22.37) | 15.3 | 6 | – |
| 7 (59) | Bonelli Erede Pappalardo | 34.63 (20.77) | 14.2 | 14 | 1.28 (0.77) |
| 8 (21) | Davis Polk & Wardwell | 34.62 (20.76) | 14.2 | 7 | 12.92 (7.75) |
| 9 (50) | Chiomenti Studio Legal | 32.72 (19.63) | 13.4 | 15 | 1.80 (1.08) |
| 10 (2) | Ashurst Morris Crisp | 22.35 (13.41) | 9.2 | 42 | 56.73 (34.03) |
| 11 (7) | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | 22.30 (13.38) | 9.1 | 65 | 28.78 (17.26) |
| 12 (11) | Cravath Swaine & Moore | 20.16 (12.09) | 8.3 | 5 | 21.73 (13.03) |
| 13 (33) | Jones Day | 20.14 (12.08) | 8.3 | 65 | 4.33 (2.60) |
| 14 (13) | Herbert Smith/Gleiss Lutz/Stibbe | 16.83 (10.10) | 6.9 | 40 | 21.02 (12.61) |
| 15 (14) | LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae | 16.62 (9.97) | 6.8 | 3 | 20.31 (12.18) |
| 16 (18) | Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton | 11.35 (6.81) | 4.7 | 25 | 14.76 (8.85) |
| 17 (8) | CMS | 9.38 (5.63) | 3.8 | 54 | 28.63 (17.17) |
| 18 (4) | Shearman & Sterling | 9.25 (5.55) | 3.8 | 16 | 48.14 (28.88) |
| 19 (23) | Weil Gotshal & Manges | 9.22 (5.53) | 3.8 | 29 | 10.40 (6.24) |
| 20 (115) | Dickson Minto | 7.38 (4.43) | 3.0 | 5 | 0.05 (0.03) |
| 21 (6) | Slaughter & May | 7.24 (4.34) | 3.0 | 31 | 37.18 (22.30) |
| 22 (16) | Simmons & Simmons | 7.22 (4.33) | 3.0 | 32 | 18.26 (10.95) |
| 23 (53) | McDermott Will & Emery | 7.12 (4.27) | 2.9 | 4 | 1.62 (0.97) |
| 24 (-) | Heuking Kuehn Lueer Heussen Wojtek | 7.11 (4.26) | 2.9 | 2 | – |
| 25 (19) | Lovells | 7.03 (4.22) | 2.9 | 42 | 13.92 (8.35) |
Source: Thomson Financial
