🧩 Santander wins appeal over £677 million AXA award
PLUS: Firefighters’ PFAS claims survive, Grab agrees to buy Atome in stages, four Kirkland partners head to S&C...
September 16, 2026
Lookzy: all your daily legal news in 0.1 billable hours. Plain English coverage of deals, litigation and legal trends trusted by lawyers at Cravath, Latham, Skadden, Gunderson and elsewhere.
Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:
Grab’s installment plan acquisition of a pay-as-you-go company
Rocket Lab’s financing and pending acquisition.
Truist expects $5.2 billion from offloading auto loans.
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
Before the agreement. The UK Court of Appeal overturned a roughly £677 million award requiring Santander to reimburse AXA over payment-protection insurance sales. The obligation covered breaches of duties under their December 1, 2000 agreement and did not reach earlier sales. About 85% of the disputed exposure came from UK policies sold before the agreement began.
A rule undone. The Fifth Circuit vacated EPA’s 2024 methylene-chloride rule and the risk determination behind it. The court said EPA had to assess particular uses of the chemical and consider evidence showing where protective equipment was actually used. EPA had stopped defending those interpretations before argument, but the court decided them anyway. The separate 2019 rule on consumer paint removal was not challenged in this case.
Firefighters’ claims. A Connecticut federal judge let parts of a PFAS lawsuit against more than 20 defendants, including 3M, DuPont and Honeywell, proceed. Twelve firefighters alleged the chemicals in their turnout gear had already damaged their cells despite no outward symptoms. That alleged present injury was enough for their requests for damages and medical monitoring to survive at the pleading stage.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
Paying in stages. Grab agreed to pay $1.49 billion cash for 60% of Southeast Asian buy-now-pay-later lender Atome Financial, including $260 million of growth capital. It will buy the remaining 40% about two years after the first closing. The price will use a whole-company equity value weighted 75% to 13× annualized adjusted EBITDA and 25% to 2.5× annualized revenue. Both measures will use the preceding six months. That equity value has a $2 billion floor and a $4.5 billion cap.
Replacing the bridge. Rocket Lab raised $1.944 billion gross through stock sales and terminated its $3.6 billion bridge commitment for the Iridium acquisition. Lenders also gave the deal an exception to the change-of-control terms on Iridium’s term loans, allowing that debt to stay in place. Rocket Lab USA will guarantee those loans after closing. The acquisition is still pending.
A $5.5 billion loan book. Truist agreed to sell an auto-loan portfolio with a $5.5 billion balance, comprising substantially all assets of Regional Acceptance Corporation. The bank expects about $5.2 billion in net proceeds. It did not name the buyer in its public announcement.
BOILERPLATE
S&C’s new PE head. Kirkland private-equity M&A partners Hamed Meshki, Luke Guerra, Guirgis Nasief and Y. Michael Chung will join Sullivan & Cromwell. Meshki will lead S&C’s global private-equity practice and co-lead Los Angeles with Patrick Brown.
Real-estate arrivals. Norton Rose Fulbright added eight real-estate lawyers from Kasowitz: three partners, two senior counsel and three associates.
Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!
