In Brief – March 2015

Arthur Cox, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have scooped the lead roles as construction giants Holcim and Lafarge sell off assets ahead of their €40bn merger. Arthur Cox client CRH is acquiring €6.5bn of assets from the two companies, including UK-based Lafarge Tarmac. The assets will see the transfer of 15,000 employees in 11 countries and the sale is expected to complete by the middle of this year.he acquisition will be funded by €2bn of cash, debt financing and a 9.99 per cent equity placing.

Technology partner Angus Finnegan, who joined in July 2014 from Osborne Clarke, led the Reed Smith team, working closely with Sky’s in-house lawyers Andrew Perry, Karla Ritchie and Andrew Middleton. The deal will enable Sky to add its own mobile telephony services to its existing content, broadband and fixed communication services from 2016. Telefónica’s head of legal for digital services, Michael Ogden, led the deal for Telefónica.

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has advised on a first-time mandate for private equity house CVC Capital Partners, following a number of strategic lateral hires. The firm advised the London-based private equity giant on its acquisition of software company Wireless Logic from ECI Partners.  White led the team advising CVC from Fried Frank, alongside corporate partners Laura Brunnen and Dan Oates. Squire Patton Boggs took the key role for the sellor ECI Partners.