Dentons has again performed well in the Q3 corporate league tables, retaining a number of top 10 positions and continuing to move up the rankings in Western Europe, CEE and CIS. Dentons' steady improvement in the league tables was also referenced with the recent shortlisting of Dentons Istanbul (a.k.a. BASEAK) for “Turkey M&A Legal Advisor 2015” in the Mergermarket European M&A Awards.

During the period, Dentons' corporate group worked on such deals as:

• Representing the owner of the Soseddushka retail chain on the sale of 100 stores in the city of Orenburg and Orenburg Oblast. The buyer was X5 Retail Group, one of the leading food retailers in Russia.
• Advising Dr Gerard (a portfolio company of Bridgepoint) in the acquisition of 100 percent of Grupa Mieszko's shares in Lider Artur brand in a bid to consolidate the largely fragmented Polish biscuit market.
• Advising on the disposal by LBO France of CityVision SAS, the France-based tour operator, and SA Marina De Bercy, the France-based tourism cruise ship operator, to Ekkio Capital, the France-based private equity firm.
• Advising the logistics group China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd. (CIMC) on the German legal aspects of the sale of a 40 percent stake in Albert Ziegler GmbH to China Fire Safety Enterprise Group, a Chinese manufacturer of firefighting equipment.

Highlights from the M&A legal advisor league tables include:

Bloomberg:

• Eastern Europe – held top position at #1
• France – rose from #16 to #12 by deal count
• Western & Eastern Europe (mid-market up to $500 million) – rose from #21 to #12 by deal count and rose from #33 to #18 in value
• Europe (any announced deal) – rose from #19 to #15 by deal count

Mergermarket:

• Turkey – rose from #5 to #2 in deal count and rose from #11 to #6 in value
• CEE – rose from #12 to #4 in deal count and rose from #36 to #5 in value
• Poland – rose from #6 to #5 in deal count and rose from #29 to #9 in value
• Russia – rose from #9 to #6 in deal count and rose from #26 to #11 in value

Thomson Reuters:

• Germany (any involvement/completed) – rose from #54 to #20 in value
• Nordics (any involvement/completed) – rose from #87 to #14 in value
• Benelux (any involvement/completed) – rose from #26 to #18 in value
• Worldwide (mid-market) – rose from #50 to #28 by deal count
• European (mid-market) – rose from #30 to #17 by deal count
• Spanish (mid-market) – new ranking at #31 by deal count
• Worldwide (small cap) – rose from #38 to #22 by deal count
• European (small cap) – rose from #30 to #15 by deal count

John Flanigan, Co-Chair of Dentons' Europe Corporate group commented: “While M&A volumes in Europe continue to increase we are seeing a lot of cross-border activity within Europe particularly cross-border transactions involving the Nordics, Benelux and Germany. France and Germany continue to be popular targets and we are definitely seeing the impact of Chinese and Japanese investment combined with a slowing of US investment in comparison to 2014 trends. Our team in Europe, recently strengthened by two lateral partner hires in Germany, our office opening in Milan, Italy and the impending combination with 大成, is perfectly situated to assist our clients doing business across Europe and beyond.” 

About Dentons

Redefining possibilities. Together, everywhere. For more information visit dentons.com