Six Continents stalker totes big guns

HUGH Osmond, the young entrepreneur stalking mighty establishment company Six Continents, has assembled a crack legal team with years of merger and acquisition experience and connections with many large British companies.

Osmond has turned to Slaughter and May, the City law firm that advises more FTSE 100 chief executives than any other. His lead lawyer is Slaughter's head of corporate Nigel Boardman, 52, a partner for nearly 20 years and among the most prolific deal advisers in the City over the past quarter century.

At his side is Andy Ryde, 38, a partner for the past six years with a dozen years' M&A experience but who has cut his teeth as an adviser on deals with an unorthodox touch.

Also in the line-up are tax partner Graham Airs and finance partner Marc Hutchinson, who together have 28 years of deal-structuring experience. Boardman and Ryde will provide Osmond the extra breadth and depth of takeover and operational experience to counter insinuations from the Six Continents camp that he is a Noughties version of an Eighties asset-stripper.

Six Continents has accused Osmond of being 'an opportunistic trader' with a team that is incapable of 'managing global brands'. A source close to Osmond said: 'Provided what we say is true, there is plenty of room for more rhetoric and strong statements on our part.'

Osmond's major accomplishments to date have been runningor taking over businesses such as Pizza Express or Nomura's pubs - large deals but essentially British-based.

Osmond's lawyers have worked on deals equal to Six Continents in terms of size and complexity. They were also his lead lawyers on the bloody battle with Allied Domecq for the Whitbread pubs chain in 1999.

Boardman's headline deal mandates include advising BHP on its merger with Billiton and Shell's purchase of Enterprise Oil. He is currently advising Wal-Mart on its bid for Safeway.

Ryde earned his spurs helping Marks & Spencer fend off a 2000 takeover attempt by financier Philip Green by helping air a disclosure that Green's wife Tina had bought more than £20m of M&S shares while her husband was plotting his bid from Monaco.

Investor confidence behind Green's bid vehicle quickly collapsed, leaving M&S independent.