Jenny McIvor

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer ('Freshfields') advised SSE plc on the sale of a 25% stake in Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc (SSEN-T) to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for consideration of £1.465bn. SSE has the largest renewable electricity portfolio in the UK and Ireland, and SSEN-T is the licensed entity responsible for operating SSE’s electricity transmission network business in the north of Scotland. The disposal is part of SSE's fully-funded Net Zero Acceleration Programme under which SSE is set to invest £12.5bn by 2026 as it looks to expand its renewables output and accelerate progress towards net zero. SSE believes SSEN-T has a central role to play in this process by unlocking the vast renewable resources available in the north of Scotland. The Freshfields team was led by partners Julian Pritchard and Nick Jones and senior associate Michael Black. Partner Richard Lister advised on IP and commercial workstreams, with partner Michele Davis advising on antitrust matters. Partners Dawn Heath and David Mendel provided pensions and employment advice respectively. Tax advice was provided by partner Peter Clements and counsel Jenny McIvor provided finance advice.

Nov 25

1 min

Freshfields is advising PSP Investments in relation to its sale of a 10 per cent. stake in Angel Trains to Arjun Infrastructure Partners (Arjun) through an Arjun managed investment vehicle. PSP Investments, one of Canada’s largest pension investors with an infrastructure portfolio of C$29.4 billion in net assets under management, will remain the majority shareholder in Angel Trains with a stake of 64.25%.  Angel Trains is the largest rolling stock company in the UK, serving the passenger rail sector with a diversified fleet of circa 4,400 vehicles, the majority of which are electric multiple units. The Freshfields team is being led by partner Richard Johnson, senior associate George Milne and associate Alex Shoferpoor, and also includes partners Richard Thexton, Helen Buchanan, Deirdre Trapp, Jenny McIvor, Andrew Murphy and James Smethurst.

Jul 4

1 min

Global law firm Freshfields have advised PD Ports (owned by Brookfield and Pontegadea) on its refinancing by way of implementation of a multi-sourced common terms debt platform and the associated bank facilities and privately placed notes that were issued to European and US investors. The Freshfields team was led by partners Stuart Rowson, Ally McKechnie and Jenny McIvor, supported by Matt Bastion, Katy Foxall, Shinpe Saito and Donald Campbell (Infrastructure Finance), James Duncan and Moishe Kritzler (Hedging) and Jill Gatehouse and Ian Galvin (Tax).

Feb 5

1 min

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) advises CVC DIF (formerly DIF Capital Partners) on the acquisition of HiSERV GmbH (‘HiSERV’) from AVECO Holding. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. HiSERV is the leading German provider of aviation ground service equipment (GSE) rental and workshop services. With a fleet of more than 5,000 GSE units ranging from non-motorised dollies and baggage carts to aircraft de-icers HiSERV serves over 60 customers across more than 30 European airports. With this acquisition, CVC DIF, a leading global mid-market infrastructure equity fund manager headquartered in the Netherlands, plans to support HiSERV’s further growth and help it expand its market share in the growing European GSE leasing market. The Freshfields core team is being led by Partner Natascha Doll and comprises Associate Lukas Pirnay, Principal Associate Panagiota Kavvada as well as Associate Steffen Blume (all Corporate/M&A, Hamburg). Tax advice is being provided by a team led by Partner David Beutel with support from Principal Associate Moritz Lehmann and Associate Philipp Carstens (all Munich). Partner Paul van den Berg, Senior Associate Max Immerzeel and Associate Veerle Peters (all Amsterdam) are advising on anti-trust matters. Freshfields also advises CVC DIF on the acquisition financing for the transaction. The financing team is led by Partner Jenny McIvor, Counsel Joseph Biesterfield (both London) and Partner Andreas Ruthemeyer (Frankfurt).

Aug 13

1 min

Ten law firm partners have been identified as the top U.K. M&A lawyers based in London for 2025, according to a dataset produced by MergerLinks. Samuel Newhouse of Latham & Watkins topped the rankings, and was found to have led on M&A transactions last year with a combined deal value of £54.05 billion. Newhouse was part of the Latham team which advised on the merger of mining giants Anglo American and Teck—creating a $53 billion combined group. Notably, every lawyer on the MergerLinks list of the top ten practitioners is male. The online platform’s final list is based on the total value of M&A transactions announced last year, and considers only those in which the respective lawyers led teams in which their firm was the primary legal adviser. The list also features top names from Freshfields, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Cravath Swaine & Moore, A&O Shearman and Slaughter and May. Freshfields partner Stephen Hewes was in second place on the list, having led on deals with a combined value of £21.9 billion, while Skadden partner Denis Klimentchenko was in third place with an equivalent figure of £15.8 billion. Freshfields' Hewes advised on CVC's acquisition of Smiths Detection from Smiths Group for £2 billion in December 2025, with Latham & Watkins also leading on the deal.

Mar 3

1 min