Latham Outpaces All Law Firms Advising on the Biggest 2024 Year-End Deals

Latham & Watkins advised on more deals valued at over US$1 billion during the last two weeks of December 2024 than any other law firm, according to an American Lawyer and Law.com International article published on January 2, 2025. Latham’s dominant market position leading the biggest year-end transactions reflects the firm’s unmatched ability to serve in various roles across the deal ecosystem, at scale, and its commitment to seeing clients through their most complex, business-critical matters.

A selection of the big-ticket, Latham-led deals the publication highlighted, include:

• A London-led cross-border deal team advised international investment firm BC Partners in its agreement with Goldman Sachs Alternatives under which the private equity business at Goldman Sachs Alternatives will acquire a majority stake in Synthon, a leading international pharmaceutical company, from funds advised by BC Partners.
• A London-based team advised DAZN, a world-leading sports entertainment platform, on an agreement to acquire Foxtel Group (Foxtel), one of Australia’s leading media companies, from News Corp and Telstra at an enterprise value of US$2.2 billion, subject to regulatory approval. The transaction represents the fifth US$1 billion+ deal the London M&A team has advised on in recent weeks.
• A New York-based banking and private capital team represented the financing sources in connection with Xerox Holdings Corporation’s (NASDAQ: XRX) US$1.5 billion acquisition of Lexmark International, Inc. from Ninestar Corporation, PAG Asia Capital, and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre.
• A Chicago-based M&A team represents global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in its acquisition and take-private with a consortium of investors of healthcare company NeueHealth (NYSE: NEUE) at an enterprise value of approximately US$1.3 billion.
• A Washington, D.C.-based capital markets and banking team represented CommScope (NASDAQ: COMM), a global leader in network connectivity solutions, in a comprehensive US$4.15 billion strategic refinancing with its existing term loan lenders, including funds managed by Apollo and Monarch Alternative Capital, pursuant to which CommScope entered into a new US$3.15 billion senior secured term loan facility maturing in 2029 and issued US$1 billion in senior secured notes maturing in 2031.
• A New York-based capital markets, banking, and real estate team represented Jefferies and the other initial purchasers in connection with Saks Global Holdings’ private offering of US$2.2 billion of senior secured notes to help support Saks Global’s completed acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group for a total enterprise value of US$2.7 billion.

“We are honored to be entrusted with our clients’ most significant cross-border transactions,” said Charles Ruck, Global Chair of Latham’s Corporate Department. “Our unmatched, multidisciplinary transactional platform with deep expertise spanning every major financial center and heavily regulated industry enables us to serve clients at every phase of their business life cycle. 2024 was a banner year for our global practice, and we are excited by the deal momentum and pipeline we are experiencing as we kick off the new year.”