Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin have advised on Allied Irish Bank’s acquisition of a 49.99% stake in Bulgarian American Credit Bank (BACB) for €216m (£166m).
The deal, which is set to close over the next few months, has seen Sidley London corporate partner Thomas Thesing lead the team advising Allied Irish.
Thesing worked opposite Chicago-based corporate partner Scott Falk at Kirkland, who advised Bulgarian American Enterprise Fund (BAEF) on the sale of the 49.99% stake in BACB to Allied Irish.
Falk has close ties with the BAEF and serves as outside general counsel to the fund, which was set up by the US Congress to invest in the development and expansion of the economy in Bulgaria.
It is the second deal Thesing has advised Allied Irish on involving a US federal fund, as well as being only the firm’s second M&A mandate for the bank. Thesing also advised the Irish bank last year on its acquisition of AmCredit, the mortgage finance business of the Baltic American Enterprise Fund, for €40m (£31m).
That acquisition of AmCredit, which also handed a role to Weil Gotshal & Manges, delivered Allied Irish a presence in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Thesing said: “The funds are interesting in themselves and the deals in turn are interesting off the back of that. It has been great to work with the bank on these transactions and we would be delighted to work with them in the future.”
BACB was established in 1996 and listed on the Bulgarian Stock exchange in March 2006.
