The results are in, and the prize for the top law firm in mergers and acquisitions for 2008 is: Linklaters?
Yes, the British “Magic Circle” law firm racked up the most M.&A. deals by volume last year, surpassing its “white shoe” counterparts across the Atlantic in New York City, according to data released by Mergermarket. Linklaters served as legal adviser on 267 deals totaling $729 billion.
The news must come as a blow to the traditional leaders of the law league tables. The winner in 2007, Sullivan and Cromwell, was a distant second with 135 deals valued at $611 billion. The merger-centric Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Flom fell from second place in 2007, to third place last year, with 187 deals valued at $526 billion.
It was a tough year for nearly every law firm on Wall Street and in The City of London as the global credit crisis weakened the ability of companies and private equity firms to make deals.
While there is no doubt that 2008 was a tough year for dealmakers, it may not be as bad as some would expect. The final numbers from Dealogic show that the combined volume of global mergers and acquisitions announced in 2008 came in at $3.3 trillion. That is down 28 percent from the record total of 2007, but still the fourth-highest yearly total on record — hardly a terrible year in the scheme of things.
Linklaters benefited heavily because of the consolidation of the banking sector in Europe. It worked with Lloyds TSB and its acquisition of the troubled home-lender HBOS; Citibank on the disposal of its German retail bank, Citibank Privatkunden; and the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB on the capital-raising underwritten by the British Government.
Beer mergers also helped the top three augment their returns. Sullivan and Cromwell and Skadden both picked up points working on either side of Inbev’s $59 billion acquisition of Anheuser Busch, while Linklaters got points by representing Scottish & Newcastle as the target in the $15 billion takeover by Carlsberg and Heineken.
But the big totals do not give the entire picture on which law firms made the most money.
There were many canceled deals last year, which normally do not count toward credit in the banking league tables, but, controversially, stay on the law firm league tables. For example, the year’s biggest pulled deal, BHP Billiton’s $192 billion hostile bid for Rio Tinto, was attributed to the firms, even though BHP pulled its bid in December.
Luckily, it would not have affected the placement of the top three, as all of them were working on the deal and received credit. But while the jumbo deal pumped up their standings in the rankings, it failed to fully line their pockets with fees.
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