International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Travelex, the world’s leading foreign exchange specialist, on the sale of its business payments operations, Travelex Global Business Payments to The Western Union Company for a total cash consideration of £606 million.

The transaction sees the latest stage in the transformation of Travelex under the leadership of Peter Jackson. The deal, which is expected to close by the end of 2011, will provide significant capital as the group looks to accelerate its growth in existing and new markets.

Freshfields fielded a global, multi-practice team led by London-based corporate partner Farah Ispahani, with assistance from corporate partners Chris Bown and Matthew Herman, the latter advising on US corporate matters. Other partners involved in the deal included James Smethurst (corporate), David Taylor (tax), Nicholas Squire (employment, pensions and benefits – EPB), Mark Wheelhouse (real estate), Andrew Craig (IP/IT), Alex Potter (competition) and Bruce McCullock (ACT). Associates included James Scott, Alastair Brown, Anand Pillai, Kimberley Christiansen, Luke Holland, Shant Manoukian and Jonathan Garforth from corporate; Todd Kramers, Paul Concannon and Reed Carey from tax; Alice Rubira and Nick Stainthorpe (finance); Holly Insley (EPB); Stuart Goldberg (IP/IT); Helen Mayhew and Russell Mascarenhas (competition), Alan Twine (real estate) and Dan Fletcher (ACT).

Commenting on the deal, Farah Ispahani said: ‘We are delighted to have advised Travelex on such a significant deal which has been the result of a joint effort between a large cross-practice team from Freshfields advising on M&A aspects of the deal, Berwin Leighton Paisner providing commercial advice and Travelex’s in-house team led by general counsel James Birch.’