William Fry has been ranked the No.1 law firm in Ireland for M&A activity by deal value for 2010 by mergermarket, the global league table house. The Firm is also the highest ranked Irish law firm on the global tables.

William Fry topped the league tables by advising on over US$7.7bn worth of deals including the Ardagh Glass €1.7bn acquisition of Impress Group, ESB’s €1.2bn acquisition of NIE, and more recently Northern Foods €475m merger with Greencore which will become Essenta Food.  The Firm also advised on the US$1.25bn Skillsoft takeover which took place in early 2010.

Commenting on the No.1 ranking, Bryan Bourke, Head of Corporate, stated: “The positive global and European M&A figures are indicators of a market that is strengthening. While 2010 was a difficult year for Ireland, there was a notable increase in M&A activity over the last number of months. We are hopeful that this is an indicator for 2011 and already this year we are seeing positive signs.  We acted for Norkom on the €217m recommended bid by BAE announced just this morning.

The No.1 ranking of William Fry confirms our position as Ireland’s leading M&A law firm and is a testament to the hard work put in by our excellent team and to our clients. We advised on the largest deals in Ireland during 2010 and we look forward to an equally successful performance in 2011. This activity further bolsters the experience we have gained from years of involvement in the most complex and challenging transactions in the Irish market.”