Deals of the week - 20.02.2002

Most national deal: Linklaters acted for GE Capital Global Consumer Finance on its 848 million purchase of First National from Abbey National, represented by Slaughter and May.

Squarest deal: Macfarlanes acted for the vendor on the 65 million sale of Internet and telephone betting company Blue Square to the Rank Group, advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Oldest deal: East Anglian firm Mills & Reeve acted for Shaw Homes on a 16 million private finance initiative to provide four specialist resource centres for the elderly for Northamptonshire County Council, advised by London firm Sharpe Pritchard.

Bevan Ashford acted for the Bank of Ireland, providing senior debt finance, while Eversheds and Morgan Cole advised the junior lenders.

Most golden deal: Manchester firm Fox Brooks Marshall acted for Gold Mines of Sardinia, an Australian company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), on establishing a new holding company in order to change its domicile from Australia to the UK, which the firm said is the first transfer of its kind.

The move involved a delisting in Australia and the UK, formation of a new UK company and flotation on AIM, and hinged on approval from the Australian Federal Court.

Best accommodated deal: Surrey firm Heald Nickinson acted for Marston Hotels on a 100 million secured financing of its hotel portfolio.

Denton Wilde Sapte represented the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Best travelled deal: London firm Marriott Harrison acted for the vendor shareholders of Kirker Travel on the sale of the company to the management team, advised by Osborne Clarke, and backed by ECI Ventures.

City firm Travers Smith Braithwaite represented the purchaser, Kirker Holdings, and ECI.

Tastiest deal: Nottingham firm Browne Jacobson acted for Leonard Van Geest in an investment of an undisclosed sum in Giles Foods, which supplies supermarkets with bakery products, advised by Milton Keynes firm EMW Law.

Most legal deal: Birmingham-based Wragge & Co acted for US law firm King & Spalding on the lease of its new London office at City Place House, Basinghall Street from fellow US firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which was advised by Slaughter and May.