Paul Weiss has advised US investment firm Apollo Global Management on its surprise £5.7bn ($7.7bn) bid for easyJet, repped by Clifford Chance.
EasyJet said on Friday it would accept Apollo's £7.15-a-share proposal, in a move that saw it back away from the £6.90-a-share offer it had agreed in principle just days earlier with Castlelake, which was advised by Milbank and Slaughter and May.
The deal represents one of the largest public M&A mandates Paul Weiss has secured in London, where the firm has made headline-grabbing raids on rivals including Kirkland & Ellis, A&O Shearman and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett over the past few years to build a top-tier practice around private equity. Law.com reported the team advising Apollo was led by corporate partners Dan Schuster-Woldan and Matthew Hearn, both of whom joined from Linklaters in 2024.
Meanwhile Clifford Chance's team was led by London corporate partners Melissa Fogarty, Katherine Moir and James Bole. Fogarty previously advised easyJet on the acquisition of part of Air Berlin's operations at Berlin Tegel Airport and the implications of Brexit, particularly in relation to the majority EU ownership and control requirements for maintaining flying rights within Europe following Brexit.
Apollo's bid followed Castlelake making a series of offers for EasyJet, which had initially been refused by the carrier after it accused the US firm of attempting to buy it "on the cheap" according to a BBC report.
It sets up a possible takeover battle for one of Europe's biggest airlines, which, despite being buffeted by geopolitical turbulence and higher fuel costs, had built a strong balance sheet and a fast-growing holidays business that was likely to be one of the biggest attractions for Apollo, an analyst at Wealth Club told the BBC.
The Slaughters team acting for Castlelake was led by London corporate partners Paul Dickson and Hemita Sumanasuriya, with the Milbank team headed by transportation and space partners Nick Swinburne in London and Alexandra Johnson in New York, together with global corporate partner Andrew Nuthall in London and corporate finance and securities partner Brett Nadritch in New York.
Easyjet said the offer from Apollo represented an 81% increase from its share price of £3.94 on 28 May, its last day of trading before the takeover interest from Castlelake became public.
The latest statement from easyJet does not mean a deal has been confirmed, with Apollo subject to a 5.00 pm deadline on 7 August to either make a firm bid for the carrier or walk away. Castlelake's deadline to make a firm offer is 3 August.
Evercore is acting as lead financial adviser to easyJet, and BNP Paribas is acting as financial adviser and corporate broker. Barclays is acting as sole financial adviser to Apollo.
The takeover bid is one of two multi-billion dollar deals announced on Friday that has seen Paul Weiss act for Apollo. Alongside Latham & Watkins and Dutch heavyweight NautaDutilh, the firm is advising funds managed by Apollo on a $3.4bn equity investment in a newly established entity holding Bayer’s long-acting reversible contraceptives business. Bayer is being advised by Linklaters.
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