Leverage Buyouts

Our multi-disciplinary team is highly integrated, bringing together specialist private equity lawyers working together regularly to execute transactions.

Our collaborative approach delivers a seamless service to our clients across all areas of transactions. Our team includes private equity focused specialists from:

  • M&A
  • Acquisition finance
  • Tax structuring
  • Employment
  • Financial services regulation
  • Competition
  • Pensions
  • Commercial
  • Insurance
  • Real estate

Transactions are increasingly complex and competitive, often needing to be executed in very short timescales. We help our clients to gain the competitive advantage required to win auctions by:

  • tracking and analysing certain key data points from every transaction we are involved in, giving us an unrivalled ability to advise clients on the latest market positions and trends, helping to shortcut negotiations; and
  • fielding experienced, close-knit teams that are used to working together to devise innovative solutions to issues and to execute transactions quickly - the more complex the situation and the tighter the timetable the bigger the difference we can make.

We also have extensive experience in less common forms of acquisition, including public to private takeovers, which require careful navigation of the Takeover Code in a private equity context, and carve-outs from corporate groups, which often involve complex separation arrangements.

We view the close of the acquisition as the beginning of the journey with that portfolio company and continue to work closely with our clients on the day-to-day management of that company through to the eventual exit, whether that is by way of auction process, bilateral sale or IPO.

Our approach to cross-border matters is different to many of our competitors. The increasing global nature of the businesses that our clients acquire or invest in mean that the vast majority (over 70 per cent during the last 12 months) of the transactions that we advise on have an international element to them. We address those international elements by working alongside leading counsel from jurisdictions around the world and, with no formal network requiring us to use any particular firm or office, we always select the firms and individual lawyers in the relevant jurisdictions that are right for the particular job in hand. We are well practised in co-ordinating the advice across all relevant jurisdictions so that it is seamlessly given on a joined-up basis at the level of quality our clients expect from us.

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"A vastly experienced and knowledgeable PE transactional team, ably supported by Macfarlanes’ tax and private funds practices. The team is smart, responsive and sensitive to client needs."

The UK Legal 500 2022

"Excellent technical knowledge and strong experience base. Highly responsive and a pleasure to work with: highly collegiate."

The UK Legal 500 2022

"They're very good and always deliver a good service."

Chambers UK 2022

"Their detailed drafting and commerciality is excellent," a client reports, adding: "They're a very trusted pair of hands and a pleasure to work with."

Chambers UK 2020

"Active on both high-end and mid-market transactions, with excellent credentials throughout the private equity field. Noted for its multidisciplinary approach, which includes substantial regulatory and tax structuring expertise."

Chambers UK 2020