The City arm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has bagged a key mandate acting on the £12bn bid for Sainsbury's by a Qatari investment group.
The New York leader is advising Delta Two on its approach for the supermarket giant, which comes just months after Sainsbury's dismissed an approach from a private equity consortium comprising CVC Capital, Blackstone and Texas Pacific Group.
Corporate partner Adrian Knight is thought to be leading the Skadden team acting for Delta Two.
The deal sees Knight advising alongside his previous firm, Shearman & Sterling, with Shearman acting for Delta Two’s financial adviser, Credit Suisse. London corporate chief Peter King is leading the team for Shearman.
The New York rivals are acting opposite regular Sainsbury’s corporate counsel Linklaters. Relationship partner Mark Stamp is jointly leading the Linklaters team alongside corporate head David Barnes.
Top 10 City law firm Herbert Smith has landed a secondary role to Skadden, advising Delta Two on property, employment and share schemes issues.
Delta Two, which already has a stake in Sainsbury's of around 25%, has offered the company 610p a share compared to the private equity consortium’s unsuccessful 580p-per-share approach earlier this year. Magic circle law firm Clifford Chance advised the consortium on that bid.
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