Acquisition and leveraged finance
Examples of our recent work include:
Alcoa
Advising Alcoa on its £1.2bn secured loan to a joint venture with Chinalco to finance the £7.2bn dawn raid on Rio Tinto plc.
Ares Capital Europe
Ares Capital Europe on uni-tranche facilities provided to a vehicle backed by funds managed by BlueGem Capital Partners LLP in relation to its portfolio company, Liberty plc, the retail and fabrics company.
Bank of Ireland
Advising Bank of Ireland as lead arranger of senior facilities for the take private of The Wireless Group plc and UTV Media plc's subsequent leveraged acquisition of Babstova plc and Capital Radio Productions plc.
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN)
Advising CSN on the financing of its £6.1bn bid for Corus plc, including £2.35bn senior facilities, £2bn high yield bridge and US$3bn equity bridge.
Groupe Norbert Dentressangle (GND)
Advising GND on its €425m facilities for the acquisition of Christian Salvesen plc.
GSC
Advising the mezzanine lenders AXA, Sankaty and GSC on Charterhouse Capital Partners' £553m leveraged buyout of Wood Mackenzie.
Haymarket Financial
Haymarket Financial, Macquarie Bank and Lloyds Banking Group as mandated lead arrangers for the senior financing of HG Capital's buy-out of JLA Group.
HeidelbergCement
Advising HeidelbergCement on the English law aspects of the financing of its £8bn public takeover of Hanson plc, including advising on its £8.75bn and €3.4bn facilities.
Indigo Capital LLP
Advising Indigo Capital LLP on the mezzanine facilities on various leveraged buy-outs, including the acquisition of CeDo Group.
Indigo Capital LLP
Advising Indigo Capital as arranger of mezzanine financing for the refinancing and recapitalisation of the Inspicio Group (a 3i portfolio company) as part of the sale of its Inspectorate division to Bureau Veritas.
NIBC Bank N.V.
Advising NIBC Bank as lead arranger of £140m senior and mezzanine facilities for the take private of Computer Software Group, €80m senior and mezzanine facilities for the leveraged buy-out and subsequent recapitalisation of Addison Software, and €120m senior facilities to Schoeller Wavin Systems for the leveraged buy-out of Arca Systems Group.
Pernod Ricard
Advising Pernod Ricard on its $10bn and €5bn facilities for the acquisition of Vin & Sprit.
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Advising the Royal Bank of Scotland, Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland, the club of senior lenders, on their £260m refinancing of the Castlebeck Group.
Syntaxis Capital LLP
Advising Syntaxis Capital LLP on the mezzanine facilities on various leveraged financing transactions, including the leveraged buy-out of GTS Telecom, a pan-European telecoms business, and the leveraged buy-out of Axtone S.A., one of Europe's largest rail freight buffer manufacturers.
TA Associates
Advising TA Associates on the senior and mezzanine financing for the acquisition of Cath Kidston.
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Advising the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) on its senior facilities for the leveraged buy-out of Towry Law.
Vision Capital Partners
Vision Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs on the senior refinancing of JDR Cables Group.
Related practice areas
"...Macfarlanes provides a 'quality work product' to a predominantly sponsor-side client roster...On the lender side, the team represented GSC, Sankaty and AXA on the £70m mezzanine facility for Charterhouse Capital Partners' acquisition of Wood Mackenzie."
The UK Legal 500 2010
"This firm is renowned for its 'extremely high-quality work' for lenders and borrowers...Sources praise the team for its 'seamless teamwork'...and agree that these lawyers are 'a pleasure to work with'...Julian Howard heads the firm's debt finance practice and 'anchors the whole team, making clients feel very confident'."
Chambers UK 2009