Dechert’s Corporate Team Shortlisted for “M&A Team of the Year” at the Legal Week British Legal Awards

Dechert’s corporate team in London has been shortlisted for “M&A Team of the Year” at the Legal Week British Legal Awards. The publication shortlisted the firm for its success advising CIT Group Inc, on its sale of NACCO, its Paris-based European rail leasing group.   

This was a complex, multijurisdictional U.S.$1.1 billion transaction. The deal started in January 2017, CIT announced plans for the sale of NACCO to VTG in July 2017. In spring 2018, the German Federal Cartel Office and the Austrian Antitrust Court approved the sale on the condition that 30 per cent of the NACCO business would be sold to an eligible third party. In a transaction which closed in October 2018, the team advised CIT on the divestiture of NACCO’s operations and assets in Germany and Luxembourg, which included approximately 4,400 rail cars, to a consortium of buyers as required by the German and Austrian regulatory authorities.  Following this divestiture, which dealt with the antitrust requirements, CIT completed the sale of the remainder of NACCO, including approximately 11,000 rail cars, to VTG.

This deal is an excellent example of Dechert’s ability to represent major clients in complex, cross-border transactions of critical strategic value - in this case, a U.S. seller, with a German buyer, and a French target in a transaction governed by English law. 

The corporate team has received a number of accolades recently. Dechert was “highly commended” in 2018 Legal Week British Legal Awards ‘M&A Deal of the Year’ category for representing SKY Hynix as part of a consortium in connection with the US$18 billion acquisition of Japan-based Toshiba Corporation’s NAND flash memory and solid-state drive business. Dechert also won the ‘European M&A Law Firm of the Year’ and ‘Deal of the Year’ at The Deal’s 2018 awards. 

The winners of the Legal Week British Legal Awards’ will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 21.