Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Clayton Dubilier & Rice on its sale of British Car Auctions

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) on its sale of British Car Auctions for £1.2billion to Haversham Holdings plc by way of an accelerated IPO.

This is the second accelerated IPO used as an exit route for a private equity backed company in the last 12 months. The other was the AA's flotation last summer, on which Clifford Chance also acted. These are the only two exits of this nature from the past decade.

Clifford Chance's CD&R relationship partner and former head of the firm's London Corporate practice Simon Tinkler led the team on the British Car Auctions deal, supported by Private Equity senior associate Christopher Sullivan. The team also benefited from the expertise of Sonia Gilbert (Employee Benefits), Jan Merckx (Luxembourg) and Karen Hodson (Finance), the latter acting for the lending banks.

Tinkler, who also advised B&M on its IPO, which was the largest private equity backed IPO in 2014, commented: "We are delighted to bring our multi disciplinary, cross-border team to help CD&R with another ground breaking transaction."

The firm's Private Equity team advised CVC on its €1.1billion sale of Skrill Group, the digital payment and electronic money solutions provider, announced earlier this week. The Clifford Chance team was led by Private Equity partner David Pearson.