We act for major players in the following sectors:

Gaming

We advise bookmakers, casino companies, bingo club operators, internet betting companies, lottery operators, racecourse owners, greyhound course owners and regulators. Headline deals in this sector include the William Hill IPO and Rank's acquisition of Blue Square.

Holidays, fitness and leisure

After a period of economic difficulties and industry change, much of our recent work in this sector has focused on corporate reorganisations, acquisitions and disposals, investments and refinancings. Headline deals include the acquisition of P&O Cruises by Carnival and advising TUI on a 390m bond issue.

Hotels

We advise financiers, hotel operators, outsourcing companies, private equity investors and real estate companies. In addition to financings, acquisitions and sales we have advised on hotel management contracts and other outsourcing arrangements, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and sale and leaseback arrangements.

Headline deals include advising Compass Group on its hotel disposal programme and the restructuring of the financing of the Le Meridien group and separation of the business from the UK hotels. Our team not only works on large portfolio transactions but also single hotel acquisitions, developments and sale and leasebacks in cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, Dsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Paris and Vienna.

Pubs

We have been very active in the sale and purchase of large portfolios of pubs in the UK since the brewing companies first started to dispose of such assets. We have also been active in the refinancing and securitisation of pub companies and estates. Headline deals include advising Laurel Pub Holdings on the sale of 1,860 pubs to Enterprise Inns, and Scottish & Newcastle on the sale of its retail business comprising 1,450 managed pubs/restaurants to Spirit Group.

Sports

We advise a range of sports regulators, such as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee; sports clubs, such as Newcastle United, Juventus and Bayern Munich; commercial organisations, such as Formula One Administration; and financiers, such as lenders for the new Wembley Stadium in England and the arrangers of the FIFA bond. We also have significant practices in television (covered by our media sector) and sports retailing (covered by our consumer products sector). As mentioned above, we also advise on sports gaming.

We advise leisure sector clients on:

  • acquisitions and disposals;
  • antitrust;
  • banking;
  • capital markets;
  • demergers;
  • dispute resolution;
  • e-commerce and m-commerce;
  • employment, pensions and benefits;
  • gaming regulations;
  • industry issues;
  • intellectual property;
  • joint ventures and alliances;
  • outsourcing and management agreements;
  • private equity;
  • privatisations;
  • project and commercial financing;
  • real estate and planning;
  • regulatory approvals;
  • REITs;
  • sale and leaseback arrangements;
  • share issues;
  • software development and licensing arrangements;
  • tax; and
  • sports sponsorship.

For more information, or if you would like to talk to us generally about how we can help you, please contact one of the following:

Nikolaus Schrader, Hamburg partner and sector co-head. (Nikolaus's leisure sector profile)
Martin Taylor, London partner. (Martin's profile)
Christopher Mort, London partner and sector co-head. (Christopher's profile)

Contacts