Slaughter and May and its network of elite ‘best friend’ firms have advised Spanish banking giant Santander on its €7.2bn (£6.1bn) rights issue announced last week.

Slaughters took the lead for the bank on the UK aspects of the capital raising, working alongside Spanish ally Uria Menendez, which advised in its local market. Meanwhile, Manhattan’s Davis Polk & Wardwell advised in the US.