1. 💰 Private equity’s coming back strong
3. ⚖️ Employment rights are changing (a lot)
4. 🔒 There’s a new Cybersecurity Bill coming
5. 🍃 ESG regulation is getting stricter
BONUS: 👥 Big changes are coming to litigation funding
Private equity houses are gearing up for a busier 2025 in the UK, thanks to more economic stability and fresh opportunities, especially in public-to-private transactions (when publicly listed companies are taken off the stock market).
Bigger acquisitions are also back in fashion — key sectors like finance, and consumer goods are buzzing with merger and acquisition activity.
For example, in finance, a key deal was Nationwide's £2.9 billion purchase of Virgin Money. Addleshaw Goddard and Slaughter and May advised Nationwide, while Clifford Chance advised Virgin Money.
Another major deal was Carlsberg’s £4.1 billion acquisition of Britvic, strengthening its presence in the UK beverage market. Linklaters acted as legal adviser to Britvic, and Carlsberg’s legal representative was Baker McKenzie.
With inflation and interest rates finally settling down, banks are becoming more willing to lend, and the pricing of companies is looking a bit more attractive — always good news for dealmakers.
More good news — the Bank of England decided to hold interest rates at 4.75%, which helps make borrowing cheaper (typically, you need borrowing to buy companies).
A lot of signs point to a more optimistic 2025 for deals.
More deals means more work (and revenue) for law firms. So, these shifts are good news for them.
Commercial lawyers play a major role in M&A deals, including: