Our banking experience

Our recent banking experience includes advising:

  • Apax, Goldman Sachs PIA and Providence Equity Partners on its €2.6bn TMT facilities for the acquisition of Kabel Deutschland;
  • Apax on its €1.5bn facilities for the acquisition of Travelex, the world’s largest foreign exchange specialist;
  • Apollo on its €1.6bn facilities for the acquisition of ish;
  • Baroness Retail Consortium (CVC Capital, Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity and Texas Pacific Group) on £691m senior, £300m mezzanine and £355m property facilities to finance its bid for Debenhams and subsequent refinancing;
  • Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG on the €173m, £97.7m and $93m facilities related to the acquisition of assets and shares in certain members of the Legoland group of companies and the acquisition of the Merlin group of companies by Blackstone;
  • BNP Paribas, Crédit Lyonnais, Crédit Agricole Indosuez, Société Générale, HSBC-CCF and CIC, as lead banks on the debt restructuring of Alstom;
  • Calyon and Morgan Stanley on a €7.9bn debt facility for Suez, to part-fund its €11.0bn cash-and-share offer for the 49.9 per cent minority stake in Belgian utility Electrabel;
  • Cinven on its £332m facilities for the public to private acquisition of Fitness First and subsequent refinancing;
  • Cinven on the €4.5bn facilities for the buy-out of Amadeus, the world’s largest travel bookings company;
  • Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank on the $1.1bn facilities for the acquisition of Sola by Carl Zeiss and EQT;
  • Credit Suisse First Boston, Halifax Bank of Scotland and Lehman Brothers on the £3.5bn loan facilities provided to finance Capital Management and Investment’s bid for Six Continents;
  • Gas Natural on its €22.6bn takeover of Endesa, Spain’s leading electricity company;
  • Goldman Sachs on the £775m leveraged acquisition financing for Four Seasons Healthcare and its subsequent refinancing;
  • Goldman Sachs International and Dresdner Bank on the $3bn financing for BAE Systems’ acquisition of United Defense;
  • Goldman Sachs PIA on its €1.3bn financing for the acquisition of the energy cable and telecom cable business of Pirelli;
  • JPMorgan on the debt financing used by Resolution Life to finance its acquisition of the closed life insurance business of Royal & SunAlliance;
  • Lehman Brothers and Starwood Capital on the restructuring of the €1.3bn leveraged facilities to the Le Meridien hotel group; and
  • Telewest Communications on its £3.5bn corporate reorganisation.

For more information please contact Nick Sims, business development and communications manager, at nick.sims@freshfields.com.

Related experience

News

Hotels, bars and restaurants and retail and wholesale sectors suffer biggest company insolvency increases View

Freshfields advises on Republic of Lithuania Sovereign Bond issue View

Briefings

Recent changes in the calculation of the usury rate/Recenti modifiche relative alla determinazione del tasso soglia  View

New Russian rules on trading and custody of foreign securities and securities designated for qualified investors  View

Awards

Restructuring team of the year - International Financial Law Review: European Awards (2010)

Project finance deal of the year - International Financial Law Review: European Awards (2010)

View all awards