Linklaters has advised Arcus Infrastructure on its £760 million P2P bid for Forth Ports PLC. The bid will be implemented by a court sanctioned scheme of arrangement and will be financed by a combination of equity from the limited partners of Arcus’ European Infrastructure Fund and debt financing arranged and underwritten by a consortium of banks including JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, The Royal of Scotland plc, Credit Agricole and Santander.

The Linklaters team was led by corporate partner Iain Wagstaff with banking partner Gideon Moore advising on the leveraged debt financing. JP Morgan Cazenove acted as Arcus’ financial advisers. Sheppard and Wedderburn are also advising Arcus on the Scots law aspects of the transaction.

Iain Wagstaff, Linklaters corporate partner, said:

“This bid will see the last UK-listed ports business being taken private. Arcus Infrastructure has been a 22.8 per cent shareholder in Forth since 2008 and this transaction is the culmination of its investment in the business and follows on from the potential bid from the Northstream Consortium (comprising Arcus, RREEF Infrastructure and Peel Ports) in 2009 on which Linklaters also acted.” 

He added:

“This is an exciting transaction for Arcus and we are delighted to work with them and their financial advisers JPMorgan Cazenove in connection with this deal. It illustrates Linklaters’ ability to provide full service advice to infrastructure clients across both the corporate and financing elements of this transaction.”