Linklaters leads on €125m sale of Channel Five to Richard Desmond

Linklaters has advised long-term client RTL Group on its €125m (£103.5m) sale of Channel Five to newspaper proprietor Richard Desmond.

RTL announced on Friday (23 July) that it had signed an agreement for the sale of Five Group to Desmond's Northern & Shell publishing company.

The Linklaters team advising RTL was headed up by relationship partner Roger Barron, who was assisted by corporate partner Clodagh Hayes and managing associate Stuart Boyd.

Barron (pictured) commented: ""The recovery in the UK advertising market in the first-half of the year gave RTL an opportunity to sell Five and we were delighted to help them with this key strategic deal."

Desmond instructed City firm Rosenblatt, which fielded a team led by corporate partner Jon Lovitt.

Rosenblatt's relationship with Desmond dates back to 1983, and in 2004 the firm acted on the £20m sale of his stable of adult magazine titles.

Linklaters advised Northern & Shell in 2000 when the company acquired Express Newspapers for £125m from United Business Media.

However, the role led to litigation when Linklaters sued Northern & Shell in November 2001 for not paying its fees of £1m after Desmond had claimed that the firm gave him "poor advice".

Desmond responded in 2003 by suing Linklaters for allegedly not advising properly on a tax deed, which the company said forced it to pay £2.1m of unnecessary tax for the Express newspapers.

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