Biography • Corporate Governance

Frances heads our corporate practice. She specialises in acting for corporate clients and investment banks, on corporate finance and M&A transactions, both in England and overseas. She also advises corporate clients generally on day-to-day corporate governance and corporate matters. She has wide experience of mergers and takeovers, private acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, restructurings, demergers and of equity and debt financing structures. Frances also has significant experience of the demutualisation of building societies.

Highlights include advising: the special administrators of Railtrack plc on M&A issues; Burberry on its demerger from GUS plc; Marconi on the disposal of its telecoms equipment and international services businesses to Ericsson; BOC on the £8.2 billion bid for it by Linde AG; General Electric on the acquisition of Smiths Group Aerospace and a detection joint venture with Smiths Group; Alliance Boots on the £11 billion bid for it by funds associated with KKR and Stefano Pessina; Banco Santander on its bid for Alliance & Leicester plc; Santander UK on the acquisition of parts of the banking business of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group; and General Electric on a recommended cash offer, made by General Electric Austria Gmbh, to acquire Wellstream Holdings plc.

Frances is listed as a leading individual in the M&A section of the Legal 500, 2012 and in the corporate/M&A: high-end capability in Chambers UK, 2013 and Chambers Europe, 2012. She is also mentioned for corporate/M&A in Chambers Global, 2012.

Frances was awarded Best in Mergers & Acquisitions at IFLR's Euromoney LMG Europe Women in Business Law Awards 2012.

Frances is a vice-chair of the international M&A joint venture committee of the ABA section of international law (ABA International).

Other Practice Areas

Frances Murphy also features in the following practice areas:

• Mergers and Acquisitions