Mixed emotions were on display at Herbert Smith’s offices last week after months of wrangling over the ownership of client BAA put the FTSE 100 company firmly in the embrace of Spanish suitor Ferrovial.
On one hand, the £10.3bn bid has given the top 10 City firm a lead role on the highest profile City deal of the year. And given the amount of manoeuvering in the drawn-out bidding war, fees will be substantial, even by the standards of big-ticket mergers. The deal, led by up-and-coming partner Gareth Roberts, is also the second-largest transaction Herbert Smith has handled in a lead corporate position, even before taking account of the bid’s contentious nature. Neither will it hurt Herbert Smith’s reputation that the BAA camp, which included Slaughter and May for Citigroup and debt finance counsel Clifford Chance (CC), was regarded to have played its hand with real aplomb.
