A raft of US firms led by New York leaders Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Sullivan & Cromwell have landed the key roles advising on the $5bn (£2.74bn) buy-out of satellite communications company Intelsat.

The deal attracted some of the US and Europe’s top private equity houses and a host of leading US law firms, underlying the current robust levels of deal activity from buy-out clients.