Allen & Overy has announced the appointment of Stephen Lloyd as a private equity partner in its London Corporate Group. This is one of the most significant hires in the sector at a time of extraordinary demand for PE expertise.

Stephen joins from Ashurst, where he was managing partner of the London corporate department from 2009 to 2012 and global head of corporate from 2012. His practice focuses mainly on private equity; however he has considerable experience advising companies, equity finance providers and investment banks on the full range of cross border M&A and corporate finance transactions.

Stephen will become one of the co-heads of A&O’s Private Equity Sector Group, which combines private equity M&A expertise with leveraged finance and high yield expertise, tapping into the firm’s knowledge and experience built up across all sectors. Building on its leading leveraged finance practice, A&O has successfully grown its high yield offering through the hire of Kevin Muzilla in 2009 from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and the promotion of Jeanette Cruz to partner. The Bloomberg European high yield legal adviser tables rank A&O first for value and second for volume of deals (46 deals worth USD26.8 billion in Q3 2013). A&O has advised on several recent high profile European PE deals including: OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCO) on their GBP935 million acquisition of Vue Cinemas from Doughty Hanson; Advent on the USD1.6bn public takeover of Unit4; and PATRIZIA Alternative Investments GmbH on the EUR2.45bn acquisition of GBW AG from BayernLB.

Andrew Ballheimer, co-head of the global corporate practice, said: "Stephen is the perfect complement to our existing leveraged finance and high yield expertise and to our global corporate finance practice as a whole. The timing of Stephen’s hire couldn’t be better given the pent up demand in the private equity market that is driving increasing levels of activity."

Stephen Kensell, co-head of Allen & Overy’s global banking group, added: "Securing someone of Stephen’s calibre in an increasingly competitive market underlines the strength of Allen & Overy’s private equity offering. We have made significant investment in private equity and Stephen’s hire is the latest addition to our growth in this area."