Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton have bagged lead roles on UniCredito’s E15bn (£10bn) bid for Germany’s HypoVereinsbank (HVB) – Continental Europe’s largest cross-border banking merger.

Freshfields is acting for long-standing client UniCredito, fielding a 70-lawyer team in 13 offices, lead by Frankfurt-based M&A partners Andreas Fabritius and Matthias Gabriel Kremer, global co-chair of the firm’s financial institutions group.