March 29, 2012 5:16 PM
Linklaters Advises France’s GDF Suez on $9.5 Billion Bid for U.K. Power Company
Posted by Brian Baxter
GDF Suez, the suburban Paris-based multinational electric utility, announced Thursday a $9.5 billion offer to acquire the 30 percent of Britain’s International Power (IPR) that it doesn’t already own.
Linklaters MA partners Marc Loy in Paris and Iain Wagstaff in London are advising GDF. Both partners led a team from the Magic Circle firm that represented GDF when it acquired a majority stake in IPR in August 2010. That deal transformed GDF into the world’s largest utility, according to our previous reports.
GDF named Sandra Lagumina as its in-house legal director last June. Lagumina is the former general counsel of Gaz de France, the French energy giant that merged with GDF in a $157.5 billion deal in 2008 on which at least ten firms advised. Linklaters was one of several firms representing GDF on that transaction.
Earlier this year, GDF unveiled its first-ever global panel of preferred legal advisers, creating roles for Linklaters, Shearman Sterling, and French firm Bredin Prat, according to U.K. publication Legal Week.
GDF said it believes that a full merger with IPR would simplify its structure and be attractive to IPR shareholders, according to news reports. IPR has not offered a public response to the latest offer by GDF.
A spokesman for London-based IPR did not immediately respond to a request for information on outside legal counsel. IPR general counsel Francois Graux also did not respond to a request for comment.
Clifford Chance, which represented IPR on the initial sale of a majority stake to GDF two years ago, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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