A&L GOODBODY RETAINS POSITION AS NO 1 IRISH M&A LAW FIRM

December, 2004 - Dublin, Ireland

A&L Goodbody has retained its position as the No. 1 Irish law firm for merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. The preliminary 2004 findings, published today by mergermarket, reveal that A&L Goodbody advised on a total of 24 M&A deals valued at €2.6 billion. The results also list A&L Goodbody as the only Irish firm to be ranked in the top 50 global law firms for M&A activity.

The survey reveals that A&L Goodbody is the highest ranked Irish law firm for European M&A activity, registering a total of 28 deals, valued at €6.3 billion. This places A&L Goodbody in 47th place for European M&A transactions by volume of deals.

It is also noteworthy that 3 A&L Goodbody Partners, John Given, Julian Yarr and Eithne FitzGerald are ranked as the top 3 Irish M&A lawyers for 2004, having acted on more Irish M&A deals than any other lawyers.

Significant high value transactions which A&L Goodbody advised on in 2004 include Quinlan Private’s takeover of the Savoy Hotel Group, the eircom IPO, Warburg Pincus’ acquisition of the Clondalkin Group, Elan Corporation’s asset disposal programme, Heiton Group’s takeover by Grafton Group, Groupe Danone SA’s sale of Irish Biscuits to Fruitfield, and Willis Group’s acquisition of Coyle Hamilton.

A&L Goodbody also acted on many high profile transactions in the highly active domestic mid-market, including the acquisition of Easycash by Ulster Bank, the sale by Bank of Ireland of its 50% shareholding in euroConex, the acquisition by Maiden Acquisition Company of Batchelors from Northern Foods, and the disposals of Dublin radio station FM104 and regional newspapers the Anglo Celt and the Westmeath Examiner Group.

Commenting on the Firm’s successful rankings, Paul Carroll, A&L Goodbody’s Managing Partner, said, “A&L Goodbody has advised on some of the most significant M&A deals, domestically and internationally, across a range of industry sectors this year. Our continued No 1 ranking reflects our successful partnership with our clients and our ability to provide first class legal and commercial advice.”

John Given, Head of M&A at A&L Goodbody commented, “We are delighted to have maintained our No 1 ranking. 2004 has been another very active year on the M&A front for Irish companies and, in fact, by last summer Irish M&A activity had surpassed total volumes for 2003. While there has been some levelling off in the latter half of this year, current indicators point to a healthy level of activity in 2005.”

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