Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) is advising Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, acting on behalf of its clients, on the acquisition of North Star. The company is an operator of specialized vessels that offer emergency response and rescue and essential offshore wind maintenance services.

Headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, North Star is an established infrastructure company with a fleet of 48 Emergency Response and Rescue Vessels (ERRVs) and Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) and around 1,400 employees. North Star's ERRV fleet is the largest in Europe and provides essential crew rescue, firefighting, and other emergency response services to offshore energy operations in the North Sea. The Company is also the leading UK provider of SOVs which are used to transport technicians to offshore windfarms and accommodate them for extended periods of time.

The multi-jurisdictional Freshfields team was led by partners Heiner Braun (Global Transactions; Frankfurt), Tim Wilmot (Global Transactions; London) and principal associate Friedrich von der Heydt (Global Transactions; Hamburg). It included, inter alia, the partners: Michele Davis (Antitrust, Competition and Trade; London), Christopher Davis (Finance; London) and Martin Schiessl (Tax; Frankfurt), as well as George Clarke, Hugh Laundy, Alex Ryan, Till Burmeister, Radu Valeanu and Agnieszka Chambellan (Global Transactions; London, Hamburg, Paris and Frankfurt), Louise Asbridge (Finance; London), Megan Yeates (Antitrust, Competition and Trade; London) and Counsel Tanja Walter-Yadegardjam (Tax; Düsseldorf).