31 January 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Linklaters has been named Law Firm of the Year at the 2005 Acquisitions Monthly Awards, reaffirming its market-leading reputation for advising on the most complex, challenging deals worldwide.
Three of these deals were considered so significant they were named by Acquisitions Monthly – widely regarded as the industry bible for global M&A and buyouts – as Deals of the Year. These were:
Deal of the year – Sanofi-Synthélabo / Aventis. Linklaters advised Sanofi-Synthélabo on its EUR 53 billion acquisition of Aventis, the largest acquisition by value of 2004.
Buyout of the year – Automobile Association-Centrica. Linklaters advised Centrica on its £1.75 billion sale of the Automobile Association, one of the largest private M&A deals in Europe of 2004.
Mid-market deal of the year – Maplin Electronics. Linklaters advised Graphite Capital Management Limited, Saltire Group Limited, Uberior Investments plc and eight individual sellers (management team of the Company) on the £244 million sale and purchase of Maplin Electronics (Holdings) Limited.
David Cheyne, global head of corporate at Linklaters, said:
“I am pleased that our dominant position in the market has been recognised by Acquisitions Monthly. Despite an ongoing quiet market, the firm has continued to advise on the more complex and challenging deals of the year including some of the most high profile cross-border deals worldwide.
“As well as the award-winning deals recognised by Acquisitions Monthly, we also advised on four of the five largest German M&A transactions in 2004, while in Sweden we acted on seven of the ten largest deals, inclu ding the top four. We had an equally strong year in Asia, particularly in China, where we won significant mandates from multinationals and private equity houses in their acquisitions of private and public targets in the PRC – for example the acquisition by China Mobile of ten provincial mobile network operators exceeding over US$46.6bn”
