CORPORATE TEAM OF THE YEAR 2018

Clifford ChanceWINNER

This year’s corporate team of the year award goes to Clifford Chance. M&A partners Lee Coney and Katherine Moir led for Imagination Technologies, a British “tech darling” involved in a David and Goliath dispute, when it found itself up against tech giant Apple. The UK chip designer put itself up for sale after a “very public and high stakes” dispute over licensing patents with Apple in June 2017. By September, it had received a takeover approach from Chinese-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge, for £550m

The judges described it as a “high profile situation” with “complex political sensitivities”.

Imagination, which at its peak in 2012 was valued at nearly £2bn, first found itself up against Apple, when the US computer giant declined to continue using its chip designs by 2019. As Imagination’s largest customer, which used Imagination’s patents to help power the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, the dramatic announcement resulted in a 62 per cent drop in Imagination’s share price in a single day.

When the dispute resolution procedure kicked off, Imagination initially declared it would be putting two of its three core businesses up for sale, including its MIPS division (a US business). The whole company was then subsequently put up for sale, and the corporate team helped overcome complications within the regulatory US asset landscape, to find a successful Chinese purchaser, with transactions negotiated simultaneously across three time zones.

The team “successfully managed a formal sale process under the Takeover Code against the backdrop of a challenging regulatory environment and high profile litigation is impressive” added the judges.

Highly commended: Addleshaw Goddard

Addleshaw Goddard, led by partner Nick Pearey, was highly commended for taking the lead on a £4bn deal advising gambling operator GVC in its takeover of rival Ladbroke Coral Group. The deal, which was played out against the backdrop of the government’s Triennial Review, created one of the largest listed sports betting and gambling companies in the world, with a market capitalisation of over £5bn. The judges described it as a “very significant transaction and a great transaction for Addleshaws to lead – with interesting and novel structuring aspects”, adding that the “ability to continue to service a client like this as it matures and expands is testament to Addleshaws’ corporate team.

Commended: Allen & Overy

Allen & Overy, led by partner Duncan Bellamy, secured a mega £9bn merger between London-based payment processor Worldpay and US rival Vantiv. A judge stated that “I was particularly impressed by the complex nature of this transaction which is ground-breaking in nature. The project management involved in two listings across a number of time zones with the added complication of a scheme document must have been very involved”.