CC topped the
CC head of corporate Peter Charlton commented: “I am pleased with the consistency of our performance in these league tables across the European markets.”
DLA Piper edged ahead of CC in the closely-watched
City firms seeing a quiet period for ranked deals included Lovells and Ashurst. Lovells was ranked outside the
The third-quarter statistics illustrate the impact of the summer’s credit squeeze, which has ended the slew of debt-driven buy-outs, a major force in deal activity in the first half of 2007.
While deal activity fell sharply on the record levels seen in the first six months of the year as big-ticket deals stalled, underlying corporate activity was relatively stable.
The value of
This picture was largely repeated globally as deal values fell sharply from the surging second quarter but, at $747bn (£367bn), were similar in value and volume terms to the third quarter of 2006. The cumulative impact is that global M&A is still up 32% globally on the same nine-month period in 2006, while in
Strong Asia-Pacific deal activity helped to drive global performance, with the region seeing a 45% rise in deal values in the third quarter against 2006 to total $306.8bn (£151bn).
Performance in the region contributed substantially to deal activity for a handful of leading
Slaughter and May practice partner David Frank said: “You could argue that to some extent there has been an insulating effect by the number of deals in the pipeline, but the message so far is that the effects of the crunch have been quite limited.”
In the global firm rankings (see below), while Sullivan & Cromwell and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom led the rankings by value, UK firms put in a solid performance, with CC, Linklaters, Allen & Overy and Freshfields taking third to sixth place respectively. The table sees CC climb seven places from the end of 2006, while A&O climbs eight after securing roles on a number of key deals.
Freshfields head of corporate Tim Jones told Legal Week: “There have been a larger number of mid-sized deals around. It has been a good quarter for showing resistance and particularly out of the
