Weil Gotshal & Manges is guiding private equity firm Advent International’s takeover of FTSE 250 industrial group Spectris, repped by Slaughter and May. 

The deal gives the group an enterprise value of £4.4bn including debt and marks one of the largest recent takeovers of a London-listed business. 

The Weil team guiding Advent is led by private equity partner Jonathan Wood, co-head of the firm’s London office. Wood has advised Advent on numerous past matters at Weil including its £4bn takeover of UK defence and aerospace company Cobham in 2019 and its subsequent $2.8bn sale of Cobham Mission Systems and $1.9bn sale of CAES Systems Holdings to Honeywell. 

Meanwhile the Slaughters team acting for Spectris is led by corporate partners Victoria MacDuff and Harry Hecht. Back in 2020 MacDuff also led the Slaughters team that advised the precision instruments maker on the sale of the Millbrook Group, which provides vehicle test and engineering services, to French firm UTAC Holding. 

Under the terms of the Advent deal, Spectris shareholders will receive £37.63 per share in cash including an interim dividend of 28p, which Spectris said its board was unanimously recommending as “fair and reasonable” according to the Financial Times. 

However the stage is set for a possible takeover battle as KKR, which had a “prelimanary proposal” rejected by Spectris earlier this month, said it may still make a new offer. 

The deal follows a string of recent take-private deals for UK companies including DoorDash’s £2.9bn acquisition of Deliveroo, repped by Latham & Watkins and White & Case respectively, and Kirkland & Ellis-repped Thoma Bravo’s takeover of Darktrace, which was represented by Latham. 

The Weil team acting for Advent also includes finance partners Tom Richards and Patrick Brendon and antitrust partner Nafees Saeed. 

Meanwhile the Slaughters team for Spectris also includes partners Tina Zhuo (competition), Chris Sharpe (pensions) and Phil Linnard (employment and incentives).