CLIENTS & DEALS
Eversheds advises 30 of the 37 British-based Fortune 500 companies.
Recent clients include DuPont, Akzo Nobel, Legal & General, Caudwell Group, British Airways, Asda – Walmart, BAE Systems, HSBC Private Equity, McDonalds, Barclays Private Equity, Bank of Scotland, Catalyst Capital, TfL, Apple Corps, DEFRA and Jimi Hendrix.
Below you will see some of our recent notable cases. Their scale and collective value (more than £1 billion) is testament to the strength of the firm.
Prestbury
We acted for The Bank of Scotland’s Joint Venture team on the provision of debt facilities to Prestbury Holdings, for its £622 million acquisition of the property assets of Alton Towers, Madame Tussauds, Warwick Castle and Thorpe Park. The attractions were acquired by Prestbury from Merlin Entertainments with lease-backs to Merlin as operators of the assets.
ABN AMRO
We advised the shareholders of Oldham-based Ferranti Technologies (FTL) on its sale to Elbit Systems, a NASDAQ listed international defence technologies company. The selling shareholders are ABN AMRO Capital, the private equity business of ABN AMRO, who invested in Ferranti in 1999 in a secondary buyout, and the management team.
Department for Transport
We advised the Department on its East Midlands, West Midlands and Cross Country passenger rail franchise transactions. The final franchise, Cross Country was awarded to Arriva plc. The franchise agreements represent a significant milestone for all companies involved and for all rail passengers throughout the network.
$450m Anglo American IT Outsourcing Contract
We advised Anglo American plc on a global IT infrastructure outsourcing deal to an alliance of British Telecommunications (BT) and Hewlett-Packard (HP). The overriding aim of the deal is to unify diverse systems across business units and develop economies of scale. Eversheds’ technology partner Rex Parry led the team advising Anglo American, with assistance from solicitor Trevor Jeffords.
Bijou Brigitte
We advised German jewellery and accessories retailer Bijou Brigitte on its UK launch. Bijou Brigitte has nearly 1,000 stores across Europe and the US and is now planning a roll out of potentially 400 stores across the UK. So far we have advised on its first two UK stores in Croydon (945 sq ft) and Uxbridge (905 sq ft plus 670sq ft mezzanine).
Oregan Financial
We completed the £70 million acquisition of Trenton Resources Limited, which owns the offices currently occupied by the Department of Trade and Industry at 10-18 Victoria Street, London. McGrigors acted for Oregan Financial and Eversheds advised the seller, Al Muhalab Kuwaiti Real Estate Company.
Barclays win
The Human Resources Practice Group (HRPG) has been successful in securing a place on Barclays’ human resource legal panel. This win means that Eversheds will be undertaking half of Barclays’ employment tribunals across the UK. Our success follows a rigorous review by Barclays of all their legal services and sees the firm also being newly appointed to the Corporate Recovery panel and retained on the MBO and Lending and Finance panel. Owen Warnock will be leading the HRPG with work being managed through a number of offices.
Easyjet
We have been appointed to be one of easyJet’s three primary law firms, alongside DLA and Norton Rose. This follows a tender exercise in April this year. It applies across all practice areas and all parts of easyJet’s business. While several other law firms have been named on the panel, easyJet’s legal team have made it clear that 90 per cent of the work will go to the three primary firms.