The London office of Latham & Watkins is advising a consortium led by Energy Capital Partners and KKR on a £5.75 billion take-private bid for DCC Energy, announced on July 27.
The deal values the international energy distributor at approximately £5.75 billion. DCC Energy serves millions of customers across commercial, industrial, public, and domestic markets, primarily through off-grid liquid gas solutions. It also runs service stations and fleet services, which has expanded the legal work beyond standard acquisition documents.
Legal teams span five practice areas:
Doug Abernethy and David Walker, corporate partners in London, are leading the Latham team. Their colleagues include associates Nick Fisher, Stephanie Aitken, and Katherine Hall. Regulatory advice is handled by partners Philipp Studt, Jonathan Parker, and Ludmilla Le Grand, along with associates Edd Rarity, James Mathieson, Milo Noone, and Nayantara Mukerji.
Kendall Burnett and counsel Kate Crompton manage employment and benefits issues. Helen Lethaby and associate Rikesh Gandhi oversee tax matters, while Delyth Hughes and associate Airlia Hie advise on hedging arrangements tied to the acquisition. The structure requires running multiple workstreams—corporate, regulatory, employment, tax, and hedging—simultaneously to meet the transaction timetable.
For law firms, such mandates test internal coordination. Specialist teams must synchronize their work to prevent delays that could disrupt negotiations, financing, or completion. The stakes rise in take-private deals involving London-listed companies, where regulatory or workforce issues can quickly become commercial obstacles.
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Latham & Watkins described the DCC Energy transaction as the latest in a series of high-profile London take-private mandates handled by the firm. As the deal progresses, advisers to the consortium, DCC Energy’s board and the financing parties will need to keep the corporate, regulatory, employment, tax and hedging workstreams closely aligned, particularly where outstanding conditions may affect the timetable or completion.
Risks remain. Regulatory approvals, particularly around competition and energy sector oversight, could delay or alter the deal. Employment issues, sensitive in take-privates, may require careful handling if the new owners plan operational changes. Hedging arrangements, critical in energy deals, must account for market volatility in the coming months.
The transaction depends on customary conditions, including shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Firms handling such transactions must also consider executive travel safety when coordinating cross-border teams.
