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Transactions UK
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July 29, 2025
Tech Co. Accuses Seller Of Hiding Issues Ahead Of £20M Deal
A group of companies owned by an American technology and security conglomerate has sued the former owner of a company it acquired for more than £20 million ($26.6 million), accusing him of concealing a raft of problems with the business.
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July 29, 2025
Global Insurance M&A Drops To Lowest Level Since 2008
Geopolitical instability, persistent inflation and high interest rates have all contributed to a cautious global insurance market, with mergers and acquisitions activity during the first half of 2025 falling to its lowest since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a new report.
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July 29, 2025
Addleshaw Goddard-Led Card Factory To Buy Rival For £24M
Greeting cards retailer Card Factory said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire rival Funky Pigeon from WH Smith PLC for £24 million ($32 million) in cash to become the second largest online card and attached gift retailer in the U.K.
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July 29, 2025
Kirkland Guides Bridgepoint On German Broker Majority Stake
U.K. private equity firm Bridgepoint said Tuesday that it has penned a deal to acquire a majority stake in German insurance broker Hanseatic Broking Center, in a deal steered by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Sidley Austin LLP.
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July 29, 2025
Osborne Clarke Guides £37M Pension Deal For Heart Charity
The British Heart Foundation's pension plan has agreed to a £37 million ($49.4 million) full scheme buy-in with mutual life insurer Royal London, consultancy Broadstone said Tuesday.
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July 29, 2025
UK Aussie-Focused Mineral Exploration Biz Launches On AIM
First Development Resources PLC began on Tuesday to trade on London's junior Alternative Investment Market after it raised £2.3 million ($3.1 million) to boost its mineral exploration and mining operations in Australia.
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July 29, 2025
Barclays Plans £1B Share Buyback To Reward Investors
Barclays PLC confirmed on Tuesday plans to reward investors with a share buyback worth up to £1 billion ($1.3 billion), in line with its multibillion-pound capital returns program.
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July 28, 2025
Berlusconi's MFE Boosts ProSieben Takeover Bid To $2.4B
MFE-MediaForEurope said Monday it is raising its offer for ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, valuing the German broadcaster at roughly €2.01 billion ($2.4 billion) as the Berlusconi family-backed media group seeks to expand its European media footprint.
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August 04, 2025
Travers Smith To Lose Leveraged Finance Head To Goodwin
Goodwin Procter LLP said Monday that it has hired Travers Smith's head of leveraged finance to strengthen its growing private equity practice in London.
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July 28, 2025
Sidara Gets More Time To Make Bid For John Wood
Engineering consultancy Wood Group said Monday that its Asian rival Sidara has been given more time to finalize its approximately £242 million ($324 million) takeover proposal, after the Scottish company missed out on offers of up to £1.6 billion in 2024.
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July 28, 2025
Dentons-Led Bermuda Investment Biz Signs £900M Merger
Bermudian Investor Hansa said Monday that local rival Ocean Wilsons Holdings Ltd. has agreed to accept its all-stock merger offer that will create a company with total net assets of more than £900 million ($1.2 billion).
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July 28, 2025
Ward Hadaway Expands By Acquiring Teesside Law Firm
Ward Hadaway said Monday it has bought commercial law firm Endeavour Partnership to grow its revenue and presence in the northeast of England.
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July 28, 2025
GSK Asks China's Hengrui To Develop 12 Drugs For $12B
Pharmaceutical giant GSK said Monday that it will pay up to $12 billion for Hengrui Pharma of China to develop up to 12 medicines to add to its respiratory, immunology and oncology pipelines.
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July 28, 2025
Freshfields, White & Case, Sidley Guide $3B Vaccine Biz Buy
Private equity firms Nordic Capital and Permira said Monday they will buy Bavarian Nordic for 19 billion Danish kroner ($3 billion) in cash to turn the vaccine developer into a global heavyweight as a private company.
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July 28, 2025
Stibbe Advises Life Science Biz On £2.8M Sale Of Subsidiary
Avacta Group PLC said Monday it will sell its diagnostics business to Indian firm 3B BlackBio Dx Ltd. for up to approximately £2.8 million ($3.8 million), to allow the life sciences company to develop its anti-cancer therapy.
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July 25, 2025
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen the owner of a £6 million ($8 million) mansion once rented by Adele sue real estate consultants Strutt & Parker, Romanian-Australian mining investor Vasile Frank Timis bring a claim against reputation and privacy firm Schillings, and a Chinese businessman bring a legal action against his former lawyer over an alleged £12.5 million mortgage fraud.
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July 25, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Weil, Freshfields, Linklaters
In this week's Taxation With Representation, CC Capital and One Investment Management acquire Insignia Financial Ltd., catering giant Compass Group PLC acquires Dutch food and hospitality company Vermaat Groep BV, drugmaker Sanofi acquires biotech company Vicebio, and The Ether Machine launches as a public company.
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July 25, 2025
Slaughter And May-Led Close Brothers To Sell Unit For £104M
British merchant banking group Close Brothers said Friday that it has agreed to sell its subsidiary Winterflood Securities to Marex Group PLC for approximately £103.9 million ($139.7 million) to simplify its portfolio and focus on its core lending business.
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July 25, 2025
UK Prospectus Changes Merely Shifting Diligence Burden
Listed companies will no longer be forced in 2026 to publish demanding documents during most secondary fundraising drives under updated prospectus rules, but lawyers warn this might simply mean that businesses spend more time and money on diligence when they make other disclosures.
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July 25, 2025
Slaughter And May Steers Wood Unit's $135M Sale To Siemens
A subsidiary of Scottish engineer and consultant John Wood Group PLC has agreed to sell its 50% stake in a gas turbine maintenance joint venture to its partner in the company, a unit of Siemens Energy, for $135 million.
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July 25, 2025
NatWest To Reward Investors With £750M Share Buyback
NatWest Group said Friday that it plans to start buying back up to £750 million ($1 billion) of shares as it reported a strong performance for the first half of this year.
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July 25, 2025
Chipmaker STMicro To Buy Automotive Sensor Biz For $950M
European chipmaker STMicroelectronics NV said Friday that it will buy a sensors business from rival NXP Semiconductors NV for up to $950 million in cash, expanding its automotive safety range.
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July 25, 2025
US Pharma Biz Indivior Cancels London Listing
Pharmaceuticals company Indivior PLC said on Friday that its admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange has been canceled, but that it will retain its U.S. listing, which it believes best reflects the profile of its business.
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July 24, 2025
Fintech Execs Deny Misleading Bank In £4M Fraud Claim
Defunct fintech startup BrickVest Ltd. and its co-founders have denied allegations brought by a German specialist property lender in a £4.2 million ($5.7 million) London claim that they hid additional investment in the business before its collapse.
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July 24, 2025
Munich Re Can't Nix Private Equity Firm's $491M IPO Claim
Munich Re Group failed Thursday to get a private equity firm's claim of approximately $491 million struck out, after a court found that it couldn't rule out the possibility that the German reinsurer had breached an agreement over the public listing of a U.S. company.
Expert Analysis
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A Look At UK, EU And US Cartel Enforcement Trends
The European Union, U.K. and U.S. competition agencies' recently issued joint statement on competition risks in generative artificial intelligence demonstrates increased cross-border collaboration on cartel investigations, meaning companies facing investigations in one jurisdiction should anticipate related investigations in other jurisdictions, say lawyers at Latham & Watkins.
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Testing The Limits Of English Courts' Pro-Arbitration Stance
Although the Court of Appeal recently upheld a $64 million arbitration award in Eternity Sky v. Zhang, the judgment offers rare insight into when the English courts’ general inclination to enforce arbitral awards may be outweighed by competing policy interests such as consumer rights, say Declan Gallivan and Peter Morton at K&L Gates.
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EU Merger Control Concerns Remain After ECJ Illumina Ruling
The recent European Court of Justice judgment in Illumina-Grail is a welcome check on the commission's power to review low-threshold transactions, but with uncertainty persisting under existing laws and discretion left to national regulators, many pitfalls in European Union merger control remain, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.
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Examining The EU's New Payments Services Package
Following recent European Parliament elections, the spotlight is turning to the highly anticipated payments services package expected in September, marking a pivotal moment in the legislative process that will reshape the payment services ecosystem in the European Union, says Kristýna Tupá and Karolína Hlavinková at Schoenherr.
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EU Reports Signal Greenwashing Focus For Financial Sector
Reports from the European Supervisory Authorities on enforcement of sustainability information, plus related guidance issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority, represent a fundamental change in how businesses must operate to maintain integrity and public trust, say Amilcare Sada and Matteo Fanton at A&O Shearman.
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What M&A Uptick Will Mean For Legal Hiring
Thomson Reuters research reveals an improving macroeconomic picture of incoming interest rate cuts, and with market confidence in the new U.K. government, there is a higher corporate demand for transactional advice, leading law firms to increase their hiring in preparation for this heavier workload, says James Lavan at Buchanan Law.
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Takeaways From First EU Foreign Subsidy M&A Investigation
The European Commission's recent investigation into Emirates Telecommunications' proposed acquisition of PPF Telecom is the first in-depth investigation of an M&A deal under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, demonstrating that the regulation can have real consequences in practice that companies must consider at the outset of large transactions, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.
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Disclosure Takeaways From Superdry Restructuring Plan
Superdry’s recently approved restructuring plan is said to be the first of its kind accompanied by a capital raise, with the High Court of England and Wales’ interim judgment providing helpful guidance on disclosure requirements, say lawyers at King & Spalding.
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EU Competition Report Spotlights Areas For Future Focus
The European Commission’s recent report on protecting competition highlights the importance of safeguarding innovation and preventing exploitative conduct by dominant firms, signaling that strong and focused law enforcement is to remain a priority with an even greater application of abuse-of-dominance rules, say Nicole Kar and Charlotte Mann at Paul Weiss.
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Insurance Rulings Show Court Hesitancy To Fix Policy Errors
Two recent Court of Appeal insurance decisions highlight that policyholders can only overcome policy drafting errors and claim coverage if there is a very obvious mistake, emphasizing courts' reluctance to rewrite contract terms that are capable of enforcement, says Aaron Le Marquer at Stewarts.
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Irish Businesses Should Act Now To Prepare For EU AI Act
Artificial intelligence is increasingly transforming the Irish job market, and proactive engagement with the forthcoming European Union AI Act, a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for Irish businesses, will be essential for Irish businesses to responsibly harness AI’s advantages and to maintain legal compliance, say lawyers at Pinsent Masons.
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Unpacking The New Concept Of 'Trading Misfeasance'
In addition to granting one of the largest trading awards since the Insolvency Act was passed in 1986, the High Court recently introduced a novel claim for misfeasant trading in Wright v. Chappell, opening the door to liability for directors, even where insolvent liquidation or administration was not inevitable, say lawyers at Greenberg Traurig.
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Opinion
The FTC Needs To Challenge The Novo-Catalent Deal
Novo's acquisition of Catalent threatens to substantially lessen competition in the manufacturing and marketing of GLP-1 diabetes and obesity drugs, and the Federal Trade Commission should challenge it under a vertical theory of harm, as it aligns with last year's merger guidelines and the Fifth Circuit decision in Illumina, says attorney David Balto.
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Complying With EU Commission's Joint Purchasing Rules
One year after the European Commission released its revised guidelines on horizontal cooperation agreements, attorneys at Crowell & Moring reflect on the various forms such agreements can take, and how parties can avoid structuring arrangements that run afoul of competition law.
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Tips For Implementing EU Sustainability Reporting Guidance
Lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell discuss the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s recently published guidance on double materiality assessments and offer takeaways on achieving a sustainability directive-compliant process that could enhance clarity and consistency among multinational stakeholders.