We advised Reckitt on the separation and sale of its Essential Home business to Advent. Zaid Wadii Batti worked on the transaction in the final seat of his training contract.  

At what stage did you become involved in the transaction?

I first became involved when I started my Corporate seat in March 2025. When I joined the matter, I had just come back from a client secondment to start my fourth seat, and the transaction had been going on for roughly seven months. At that time, the team had just completed a major due diligence exercise and the transaction was in full swing with various workstreams relating to both the separation and the sale being progressed by teams across the firm. As a trainee, you often end up leaving a transaction before it signs, so I was quite excited to get involved with a matter in its later stages when there was a big push towards agreeing documents and getting the deal signed.  

What kind of work were you doing?

My work on this matter was varied, often spanning three or four workstreams in a day - from drafting documents and liaising with specialists to maintaining trackers and engaging with clients. While many tasks were typical for a Corporate trainee, I was encouraged to take on more substantive work when I had the capacity, which allowed me to contribute meaningfully to larger workstreams and lead on certain discrete aspects of the matter.

The structure and complexity of the transaction were, for me, probably the most interesting parts. The Essential Home portfolio includes around 80 brands across over 70 markets, meaning there was a significant amount of cross-border work involved across various practice areas.

How many lawyers worked on the transaction and how was responsibility allocated?

As this was a fairly long-running matter, the number of people involved often changed. In the Corporate team, there were about 17 people (including five trainees) working on this transaction. There were also plenty of lawyers involved from practice areas across the firm. Overall, given the size and complexity involved, the team on this transaction was exceptionally large compared to other matters that I had worked on. Coordinating across so many teams could have been challenging, particularly as there was a sale and separation process being done in parallel, but the various departments worked together seamlessly throughout the process, and I think this ended up being an area in which the matter team excelled.

What did you find most interesting about the transaction?

The structure and complexity of the transaction were, for me, probably the most interesting parts. The Essential Home portfolio includes around 80 brands across over 70 markets, meaning there was a significant amount of cross-border work involved across various practice areas. In this sense, the separation side of the deal resulted in a number of fascinating discussions and creative solutions. Being involved in - and seeing how - all these aspects of the matter eventually came together in the documents, was fascinating.

What did you find most challenging about working on the transaction?

During my involvement on the transaction, there were naturally some high-pressure moments due to its scale, complexity, and tight timelines. Managing multiple tasks and workstreams was challenging, and as would be the case for most matters that you work on as a trainee, working hours could on occasion stretch into the later hours of the evening if a particular task was urgent or there was a general drive to get something done. However, at the same time, these challenges also provided excellent opportunities for me to refine my transaction management and organisational skills. I also always felt well supported, and there was a strong sense of teamwork that made the experience feel manageable and enjoyable.   

How did you feel when the transaction completed?

I think there was a tremendous amount of excitement (and relief!) when the deal signed. For many on the team, a year’s worth of effort had gone into this transaction, so there was definitely a sense of pride in what the team as a whole had achieved once we got to signing. I myself had spent about five months working on the matter by the time we got to signing, and it was a fantastic feeling to be in the office with the Corporate team in the early hours of the morning as the headlines started to come in and the deal was being announced.

What was your favourite moment?

The signing itself was definitely very exciting, but my favourite moment was a couple of weeks before that when we were in the middle of negotiating the documents. During that stage, there was a massive push to get the deal over line and it very much felt like the entire team was pursuing this massive collective endeavour in a remarkably efficient and organised manner. Personally, I found it extremely rewarding to have been part of such a team effort.