Recent Work

Kenmare Resources plc     Ion Equity     We acted for J.P. Morgan Cazenove, Davy, Canaccord Adams, and Mirabaud Securities, the global co-ordinator, sponsor and underwriters of Kenmare Resources plc's STG£180 million capital raising by Firm Placing, Placing and Open Offer.     We advised Ion Equity and other selling shareholders on the sale of SWS Natural Resources Holdings Limited, the operator of Ireland’s second largest wind energy generation business, to Bord Gais Eireann.     Date : March 2010 Value : STG£180m    Partners :  David Byers                       Date : December 2009 Value : In excess of €500m    Partners :  Ben Gaffikin                                   Allied Irish Banks, plc     Elan     We acted for Allied Irish Banks, plc on the Government's €3.5 billion recapitalisation, effected by a subscription by the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission for 3.5 billion preference shares in the bank. As part of the subscription the commission was given warrants to subscribe for ordinary shares representing 25% of the bank's ordinary share capital at that time     In October 2009, McCann FitzGerald advised the initial purchasers, led by Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., on the Irish legal aspects of an offering by Elan Finance, plc and Elan Finance Corp., each a wholly-owned finance subsidiary of Elan Corporation, plc. of USD625 million 8.750% Senior Notes due 2016. The notes were listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and were offered for sale in the United States pursuant to Rule 144A and in Europe pursuant to Reg S.     Date : May 2009 Value : €3.5bn    Partners :  Barry Devereux                  David Byers                  Julian Conlon                       Date : October 2009 Value : $625m    Partners :  Fergus Gillen                                   Davy / IFG Group plc     Independent News & Media plc     We acted for Davy, as sponsor and underwriter of IFG Group's €50m placing and open offer to finance its class 1 acquisition of James Hay Holdings Limited.     We acted for Independent News & Media plc on its announced restructuring, including the agreement of new €745 million banking facilities with its syndicate of banks and the equitisation of the INM Group's May 2009 €200 million 5.75% bonds and related proposed €92.2 million rights issue     Date : December 2009 Value : €50m     Partners :  Barry Devereux                  Aidan Lawlor                       Date : Ongoing Value : €945m    Partners :  John Cronin                  Adrian Farrell                  David Byers                  Julian Conlon                  Jane Marshall                  Damian Collins                  Philip Andrews                  Helen Kilroy                                   C&C Group plc     Davy, Canaccord Adams and Renaissance Securities     We advised C&C Group plc on the Irish aspects of its acquisition of Anheuser-Busch InBev's Irish, Scottish and Northern Irish businesses including the Tennent's lager brand.     We acted for Davy, Canaccord Adams and Renaissance Securities, the joint brokers in respect of PetroNeft Resources plc's institutional placing which raised USD$27.5million.     Date : September 2009 Value : €250m    Partners :  David Lydon                  David Byers                  Damian Collins                  Adrian Farrell                       Date : September 2009 Value : $27.5m    Partners :  Julian Conlon                  Aidan Lawlor                                   Aminex plc     Irish Nationwide Building Society     We acted for Davy and Astaire Securities plc, placing agents and sponsor (Davy), in respect of Aminex plc's institutional placing and open offer which raised USD$17million.     We acted for Irish Nationwide Building Society ("INBS") in relation to the implementation of their recent landmark €900,000,000 and £500,000,000 note exchange offer. The profit realised from such an exchange, where the existing notes were trading at a discount and exchanged for new notes issued by INBS, was used to strengthen INBS's capital base.     Date : August 2009 Value : $17m    Partners :  Julian Conlon                  Aidan Lawlor                       Date : July 2009 Value : €900m & £500m    Partners :  Julian Conlon                  Hugh Beattie                                   Birchhall Investments     Marathon Oil Corporation     We acted for Birchhall Investments(a joint venture between NCB Ventures and Pageant Holdings) in relation to its acquisition of Xtra-vision, Ireland's leading home entertainment business, from Blockbuster Inc.     We acted for Marathon Oil Corporation in the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Marathon International Petroleum Hibernia Limited, which holds Marathon’s 18.5 percent interest in the Corrib natural gas development offshore Ireland, to Vermilion Energy Trust. The final sale proceeds will range between $235 million and $400 million, subject to the timing of first commercial gas at Corrib. The assets associated with the Corrib development as of year-end 2008 were 98 billion cubic feet of natural gas (16.4 million barrels of oil equivalent).     Date : July 2009 Value : up to €32 million    Partners :  Alan Fuller                  Patricia Lawless                       Date : June 2009 Value : $235m - $400m    Partners :  Valerie Lawlor                  Colm Fanning                  Michael O'Reilly                                   Marathon Oil Corporation     KPS Capital Partners LP     We acted for Marathon Oil Corporation in the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Marathon Oil Ireland Limited, for $180 million to PSE Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas). The assets sold include Marathon's 100pc operated interest in the Kinsale Head Area comprising Kinsale Head, South West Kinsale and the Ballycotton gas fields, as well as an 86.5pc interest in the gas producing Seven Heads field which is tied back to Kinsale. It also includes 100pc interest in the company's gas storage business with current capacity of 7 billion cubic feet.     We acted as Irish counsel to WWRD Holdings Limited, a company newly formed by KPS Capital Partners LP, on its acquisition of certain assets of the Waterford Wedgwood Group.     Date : April 2009 Value : $180m    Partners :  Valerie Lawlor                  Maureen Dolan                  Michael Ryan                       Date : March 2009 Value : Undisclosed    Partners :  David Byers                  Deirdre Mulligan                  Maureen Dolan                  Jane Marshall                  Julian Conlon                  Eamon de Valera                                   National Broadband Scheme     Boston Scientific Corporation     We advised the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on all stages of and contractural drafting, negotiations and state aid matters associated with the public procurement competition (using the competitive dialogue procurement procedure) to appoint a service provider to roll-out and implement the National Broadband Scheme.     We acted as Irish counsel to Boston Scientific Corporation on the acquisition of Labcoat Limited. Labcoat Limited is a privately held, development-stage drug-eluting stent technology company located in Galway, Ireland.     Date : December 2008 Value : Confidential    Partners :  Susan O'Halloran                       Date : December 2008 Partners :  Paul Heffernan                                   Waterford Wedgwood open offer and placing     Sale of FindlaterGrants by C&C Group plc to DCC plc     We acted for the sponsor and placing agents in relation to Waterford Wedgwood's proposed equity issue to raise in aggregate €153.7 million, comprising an Open Offer to raise up to €101.7 million and a Placing to raise up to an additional €52 million.     We advised C&C Group plc in the sale of its wine business, FindlaterGrants, to DCC plc     Date : October 2008 Value : €153.7m    Partners :  David Byers                  Julian Conlon                       Date : September 2008 Value : Circa €10 million    Partners :  Guy French                                   Acquisition by Volkswagen AG of its Irish distributorship     Petroceltic International plc/Iberdrola     We acted for Volkswagen AG. in the purchase of the entire issued share capital of Volkswagen Group Ireland Limited from Motor Distributors Limited (a subsidiary of O'Flaherty Holdings Limited).     We advised Petroceltic International plc in relation to its strategic alliance and financing arrangements with Iberdrola, a major international energy company, to facilitate the development of the company's oil and gas assets in North Africa and Italy.     Date : October 2008 Partners :  Ben Gaffikin                       Date : June 2008 Value : USD$55m    Partners :  Barry Devereux                  David Byers                  Richard Rice                                   Smurfit Kappa IPO     Voluntary Health Insurance Board     We acted for Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Davy and Goldman Sachs International, the joint bookrunners and underwriters of Smurfit Kappa plc's €3.6bn IPO. This deal was awarded Equity Linked Deal of the Year by Finance Magazine Deals of the Year 2008.     Acting for VHI before the EC Court of First Instance in support of the European Commission in State aid proceedings brought by BUPA. The CFI dismissed BUPA's application.     Date : March 2007 Value : €3.6bn    Partners :  Barry Devereux                  Julian Conlon                  David Byers                       Date : February 2008 Partners :  David Clarke                  Damian Collins                  Gerald FitzGerald                                   International Securities Trading Corporation     alphyra/Payzone     We advised a consortium of unsecured lenders, who were the most substantial creditors of ISTC - a major player in the Irish financial market which raised money on international markets to lend to banks - which declared itself in difficulty in November 2007 with liabilities in excess of €1bn     We advised alphyra on its reverse take over of Cardpoint plc     Date : November 2007 Partners :  Jane Marshall                       Date : December 2007 Value : €437m    Partners :  Alan Fuller                                   ACC Bank     Bank of America     We are advising ACC Bank, one of the major creditors of Michael Lynn, a Dublin-based solicitor, whose extensive property dealings and related financial arrangements saw him accused of premeditated fraud during 2007     We acted for Bank of America, which was a counterparty to substantial derivatives obligations, in the examinership of SCC, which was the first major victim of the credit crunch in Ireland     Date : December 2007 Partners :  Jane Marshall                       Date : December 2007 Partners :  Jane Marshall                                   Ulster Bank Mortgage Backed Promissory Notes Scheme     Collins Stewart/ISTC     We advised the Central Bank in relation to this significant notes scheme, awarded the Capital Issues Deal of the Year by Finance Magazine Deals of the Year 2008.     We acted for Collins Stewart plc in its acquisition of International Securities Trading Corporation plc (ISTC) successfully obtaining clearance for the transaction in a record eight working days.     Date : December 2007 Value : €3 billion    Partners :  Daire Hogan                       Date : March 2008 Partners :  Philip Andrews                  Ronan Molony                                   Avnet offer for Horizon Technology     Bord na Mona     Advising Avnet, Inc. and Avnet (Holdings) Limited in relation to its offer for Horizon Technology Group plc     We advised Bord na Mona plc in relation to its acquisition of Advanced Environmental Solutions (Ireland) Limited     Date : April 2008 Value : €101 million     Partners :  David Byers                       Date : May 2007 Value : €61m    Partners :  Alan Fuller                  Barry Devereux                                   C&C Group plc     Aer Lingus IPO     We advised C&C Group plc on the sale of its soft drinks division to Britvic. The transaction involved a horizontal overlap and was cleared by The Competition Authority in Phase 1.     We advised UBS, AIB, Goldman Sachs and Merrion Stockbrokers, the underwriters of the IPO of Aer Lingus     Date : August 2007 Value : €249.2m    Partners :  Guy French                  David Lydon                  Damian Collins                       Date : September 2006 Value : €1.1bn    Partners :  Barry Devereux                  Julian Conlon                                   Office of Public Works     McInerney Holdings rights issue     Advised the OPW on the procurement of the 8,000 delegate capacity National Conference Centre. This deal was awarded ‘PPP Deal of the Year’ by the international publication “Infrastructure Journal”, “2007 European Leisure Deal of the Year” from Project Finance Magazine and Best Loan Deal in the Finance awards 2008.     We acted for the Bank of Ireland and IBI Corporate Finance, respectively the underwriter of and sponsor to McInerney's €86.8m rights issue     Date : April 2007 Value : €350m    Partners :  Colm Fanning                       Date : March 2007 Value : €86.8m    Partners :  David Byers                                   Irish Continental Group     National Roads Authority     Acting for AIB in respect of its arranging the funding for the above proposed acquisition by its management     Advising the NRA on the upgrade of the Galway - Ballinasloe road (51km) to dual carriageway.     Date : March 2007 Value : c. €450m    Partners :  Niall Powderly                  Eamon de Valera                  David Byers                       Date : March 2007 Value : circa €282m    Partners :  Colm Fanning                                   Fortis Bank     Commission for Communications Regulation     Advised Fortis Bank on a joint venture in the financial services sector with An Post     We successfully defended the challenge by Smart Telecom in relation to the award of a 3G mobile phone licence     Date : October 2006 Value : €112m    Partners :  William Earley                       Date : October 2006 Partners :  Rosaleen Byrne