The general counsels of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse have agreed to jointly head the newly merged company’s legal team.
Dixons Carphone completed its £3.7bn merger last week, with public trading of the company commencing last Friday (8 August).
A spokesperson for Dixons Carphone confirmed that Helen Grantham and Tim Morris – formerly GCs of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse respectively – would share responsibility for the retailer’s legal and company secretarial affairs throughout a process of integration.
It is not currently known how long the integration will take nor whether either lawyer will take the top role on its completion.
In two other recent examples of ‘mergers of equals’ – Glencore’s 2013 tie-up with Xstrata, and T-Mobile and Orange UK’s union to create EE – sole GCs were appointed on or before completion of the merger.
Earlier this year, the chief executive of Publicis said would-be merger partner Omnicom’s eagerness to appoint its own GC to a proposed board led to takeover fears, and contributed to the breakdown of the $35bn (£21bn) merger.
The merger of the two companies earlier this year gifted advisory roles to Linklaters, which and acted for Dixons, and Osborne Clarke and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which advised Carphone Warehouse on the corporate and financing aspects of the deal respectively.
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