Reed Smith leads on Take-Private Deal | SpaceX $1.75tn IPO, Estée Lauder v Jo Malone, UK Mortgage Rates

The ZipLaw Briefing returns with the week's biggest commercial and legal stories, decoded for training contract and vacation scheme applications.🤝 Deal of the Week: Reed Smith and Osborne Clarke on the Essensys take-private. Founder Mark Furness is buying back his own AIM-listed company for £11.3m, 85% below its 2019 float price. We break down the squeeze-out mechanics under the Takeover Code, the AIM delisting process, and what this signals about small-cap public M&A. Essential listening if you're applying to Reed Smith or Osborne Clarke.🚀 Story 1: SpaceX's $1.75 trillion IPO. Elon Musk's plan to take SpaceX public would be the biggest listing in history, with dual class shares, mandatory arbitration, and a pay package that vests on building a Mars colony. We cover the governance backlash, the Wall Street firms likely to be instructed (Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell, Davis Polk, Latham, Simpson Thacher, Cravath, Wachtell), and why this matters for London.🏠 Story 2: Why mortgage rates jumped without a central bank moving. UK two-year fixes rose 1.1 points in eight weeks. We trace the Strait of Hormuz shock through banking, structured finance, real estate, housebuilder M&A, competition law, FCA Consumer Duty, and disputes work.⚖️ Case of the Week: Estée Lauder v Jo Malone and Inditex. Jo Malone says she "can't stop being a person." We unpack the section 11 own-name defence, the 1999 sale agreement, and why this case will reshape how IP and corporate M&A teams draft restrictive covenants on founder-led brand acquisitions.📰 News roundup: Saudi Aramco's profit surge, US inflation at 3.8% and Kevin Warsh's Fed debut, UniCredit's hostile bid for Commerzbank, and Amazon Now's 30-minute delivery rollout.—For more commercial awareness, head to ZipLaw.uk for ZipTracker (350+ cases and deals), Firm Playbooks, application insights, and successful training contract applications with expert feedback.Preparing for the SQE? Visit ZipSQE.com for 2,000+ MCQs, 40+ SQE2 mocks with AI feedback, flashcards, flowcharts, and revision schedules. Free plan available.Follow @ziplaw on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn for daily commercial awareness and SQE content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.