Sidley Austin has made two new hires to boost its private equity practice in London.

Partner Wim De Vlieger and associate Till Lefranc both join the US firm.

De Vlieger acts on M&A, and debt issues and has acted for the likes of Apax and KKR. He is recognised as a 'Notable practitioner' in the IFLR1000 and his recent work includes advising KKR on the acquisition of Gestamp Asetym Solar and seperately GetYourGuide. He has also advised TDR Capital on high-yield issues.

Lefranc also handles both M&A and debt capital markets matters for his private equity client base.

Sidley has been building up its private equity team since early 2016 when it hired Erik Dahl, Christian Iwasko, Sava Savov, Fatema Orjela finance partner Bryan Robson and tax partner Oliver Currall.

Most recently in London the firm has focused on expanding its resturtcuring and insolvency offering hiring Yen Sum and Jennifer Brennan from Linklaters.