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Media Releases
2008

15 February
2008

A good year for Corporate Finance

Leading UK law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn completed corporate finance deals totalling over £18.7bn in 2007 following its involvement in some of the year's biggest transactions.

In January 2007 the firm acted as lead legal advisers to Cairn Energy PLC when it successfully launched its subsidiary, Cairn India Limited, on the Indian National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange.  The international public offering, with an initial market cap for Cairn India of US$6.3 billion, was one of the largest Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in India to date.

The team also advised ScottishPower in the £11.6 billion recommended offer by Iberdrola S.A., the Spanish utility company in steering the scheme of arrangement through the courts.

In addition, the firm advised Leaf Clean Energy Company, a Cayman Islands-based renewables investment company, on its £200 million placing and flotation on AIM. The transaction was the largest IPO fundraising on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market in the first half of 2007.

Other key M&A deals in which the firm was involved were the £240 million bid for Teesland, the £595 million acquisition of Whyte and Mackay and the £856 million sale of the Scarborough Property Group.

James Will, head of Corporate Finance at Shepherd and Wedderburn said: "The firm's involvement in some of the largest deals of 2007 demonstrates our strength and expertise across a number of sectors both in the UK and overseas. It was an extremely active year for us and we are very fortunate with the clients for whom we work." 

"It is still difficult to say what 2008 holds for general levels of corporate activity in the UK.  There remains a lot of uncertainty.  Our view is that we are all going to see more mid-market M&A activity in 2008 and that the level of IPOs in the London markets is likely to be much reduced until possibly Q4 - although we are continuing to see interest in the Renewables, Oil and Gas and Minerals and Resources sectors."

"2008 has however started strongly for us with deals such as the launch of a £500 million fund for Australian property group Valad - which will target opportunities in the UK commercial property market; the IPO of gambling services company AsianLogic raising US$100 million; and the £175 million rights issue by mezzanine financing specialist Intermediate Capital - where we acted for one of the joint lead managers. "


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