Slaughter and May has been recognised as the standout legal advisor in dealmaking for its role in reviving a stalled takeover bid for the UK engineering firm Wood Group by Dubai-based Sidara. The takeover offer had previously been rejected, and Wood Group’s shares were suspended following an admission that its financial results needed to be restated after an independent review identified withheld or unreliable information provided to auditors. Despite these challenges, Sidara maintained its nonbinding rescue offer from April, contingent on the verification of the 2024 financial accounts. Slaughter and May facilitated ongoing discussions with the UK’s Takeover Panel, resulting in a rare exception to the requirement that bids for publicly quoted companies be unconditional. The final terms of the deal were agreed upon in November 2025.
William Fry earned high marks for advising Ireland’s Department of Finance on the sale of its remaining 2 percent holding in Allied Irish Banks (AIB). This share disposal in June 2025, raising approximately €305 million, marked the conclusion of a gradual exit strategy that began after Ireland effectively nationalised the bank during the 2008 global financial crisis. William Fry devised a twofold sales approach involving a phased share-selling plan launched in 2021 to improve market liquidity, combined with a series of block trades conducted over five years. The firm also delayed appointing bookrunners until closer to the launch date to limit information leakage and help stabilise the share price.
Other notable legal advisories included Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader, who worked with Rolls-Royce Submarines on consolidating multiple Ministry of Defence contracts into a single £9 billion framework agreement stretching over eight years. This restructuring introduced contractual flexibility expected to save the UK government an estimated £400 million. Meanwhile, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo advised Spanish defence company Indra on an industrial alliance with Emirati group Edge. This arrangement comprises joint ventures in Spain and Abu Dhabi that enable the transfer of technology and expertise while complying with various export controls, foreign investment screenings, and competition laws.
Paul Weiss advised US semiconductor company Qualcomm on its $2.4 billion acquisition of Canadian chip designer Alphawave. The deal involved complex management of intellectual property and regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions and was completed three months ahead of schedule in December 2025. Covington assisted German vaccine developer BioNTech in securing antitrust clearance for its acquisition of rival CureVac, convincing regulators that the merger would be complementary rather than competitively harmful.
Sullivan & Cromwell represented Swiss sports analytics firm Sportradar, successfully advocating for approval from the UK competition regulator for its purchase of US competitor IMG Arena by citing IMG’s financial difficulties under a “failing firm” defence. Travers Smith acted for property investor Assura in its £1.8 billion takeover by Primary Health Properties, winning out over competing bids from private equity firms KKR and Stonepeak.
Additional deals highlighted include Pérez-Llorca’s structuring of staged payments for Canadian legal tech company Clio’s $1 billion acquisition of Spanish legal research provider vLex, and A&L Goodbody’s advisory role in the auction and sale of Irish hotel group Dalata for €1.4 billion, representing a 35.5 percent premium over market price. In the education sector, Pinsent Masons and Mills & Reeve advised the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent on their 2026 merger, enabling both institutions to continue operating under separate names following regulatory approval.