Allen & Overy advises Apax Funds on their acquisition of WGSN from Ascential

WGSN is a leading global consumer trend forecaster, serving customers across multiple product design industries, enabling them to understand their future consumers' changing attitudes and lifestyles and create the exact products and experiences those consumers will need. WGSN's market and trend expertise, proprietary data and advanced data science and analytics capabilities enable it to provide consumer insights and trend forecasts to both global corporations and small-and-medium-size enterprises in a wide range of industries, including fashion, home and interiors, food and drink, beauty, health and wellness, automotive, finance and lifestyle. WGSN provides information through its digital subscription platforms to over 6,500 customers in more than 90 countries, employing a team of over 250 in-house experts and data scientists.

The acquisition remains subject to customary regulatory and shareholder approvals.

The A&O private equity team advising Apax was led by partner Monika Przygoda and senior associate Jeremy Wilkins. Also involved were senior associates Soyeon Lim and Caroline Crawford, associates Oliver Mills, Caitlin Smith, Amith Yedugondla and Harriet Lister, and trainee Chantelle Fard. Tax advice was provided by partner Tim Harrop and senior associate Mitchell Fraser. Commercial advice was provided by partner Jim Ford, counsel Alex Shandro and associates Magnus Yadi, Fergus Lawrie and Nicholas Phillips. The wider team was made up of specialists from across the A&O network.

Ascential was advised by Travers Smith LLP, Slaughter and May and Fried Frank.