IFLR 1000
The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms

Houthoff Buruma is less visible in the capital markets than some of its competitors but it does have a strong capacity for equity transactions, often M&A related, and straight bond issuances. The most often mentioned capital markets lawyer of the firm is partner Matthijs van den Broek.

In highlight deal examples, the firm advised Accsys Technologies on a €30 million equity offering and was retained for the company's potential listing on the London AIM and Euronext Amsterdam. It also advised Man RMF Investments on the offering of shares in sub-fund Man Dynamic Diversified to the public.

In a third notable deal it represented insurance company Bovemij Verzekeringsgroep on a €60 million equity raising. The firm has considerable exposure to equity capital markets work through M&A transactions.

The debt side is handled by the firm's banking practice and in one deal, London-based partner Jessica Terpstra advised JP Morgan on a $605 million notes issue by Bumble Bee Group in December 2010 and NYSE listed Silgro Food Group in relation to a $150 million private placement of notes. Banking partner Loet Venrooy also advised NASDAQ listed Global Crossing on a $750 million note programme in November 2010.

Houthoff Buruma has a solid presence on big ticket mainstream banking deals, but it is the firm’s ability to leverage off its bankruptcy and real estate practices that keeps its name up there. Commentators expect a lot of refinancing and restructuring in real estate in 2011-2012 so Houthoff should be well placed.

Loet Venrooy has a very good reputation. "Ten years ago not much there, but since Venrooy joined from Simmons & Simmons they have really developed a banking team in real estate and now it regularly advises ING Real Estate on a lot of its Dutch deals," says a client.

Another client says Venrooy "negotiated well and knows how to switch between core issues and miscellaneous issues... he is a good negotiator [with] a keen eye for real issues". Another says Venrooy is "very capable of technical work, drafting is quick and adequate, pleasant to work with, capable of managing a deal in an efficient way and keep a good spirit in negotiations".

Venrooy advised Royal Bank of Canada on a €900 million acquisition facility to Dana Petroleum, and won mandates from Cool Cat to finance its acquisition of MS Group, and from Maxeda and private equity firm Egeria on financing for its acquisition of Den Haven Group. London partner Jessica Terpstra acted for Doughty Hansen on a €100 million loan for its acquisition of Equity Trust.

Venrooy was also assisting the trustees of DSB Bank on a €1 billion real estate credit from a group of Dutch banks. In real estate, the firm advised Amvest on €430 million loan from ABN AMRO and ING Real Estate.

Houthoff Buruma certainly has some very big names in the market, among them Michiel Pannekoek (restructuring), Casper Banz (real estate) and Alexander Kaarls. Peers say the Rotterdam team "is doing very well acting for sponsors and corporates on the mid-market". According to other commentators, "the firm do well on the mid-market and it is subcontracted on very big deals by US and UK firms".

The firm landed one of the highest value M&A in 2010 when Kaarls was engaged by Portugal Telecom to advise on the sale of a 50% interest in Brasilcel, a Dutch holding company, to Telefónica for €7.5 billion. The deal followed a battle between Portugal Telecom and Telefónica for Brasilcel.

In December 2010, Kaarls closed another deal this time for the Moscow-based grocery store owner Efkarpos Enterprises on its sale of discounter Kopeyka Grocery Chain to X5 Retail Group, Russia's largest retailer. He also led on an interesting transaction which saw client China Huaneng Group on the acquisition of 50% of InterGen from GMR Infrastructure.

Other notable transactions saw the firm advise Cool Invest III on its acquisition of M&S Mode Groep from Maxeda, act for the management of Hyva in the sale of Hyva to Asian investment company Unitas Capital for €525 million, and represent Norit on the sale of its Clean Process Technologies (CPT) to Pentair for €503 million.

Houthoff Buruma's market profile does not match its portfolio of current transactions. The firm has a specialised projects finance team led by Peter Habraken and in 2011 was involved in a number of bidding races for DBFM contracts and infrastructure projects, and on mandates from private companies on project financings.

Its public reputation has in recent years taken some knocks however, most significantly the departure of Jaap Koster to Clifford chance (not recent but still mentioned in the market) and in 2011 the loss of Corinne Schot and a team of associates to Baker & McKenzie. Competitors comment that the firm has a "low profile in the market" with "project financing as incidental rather than core". "They are big in construction and real estate," says a peer.

Nevertheless, Habraken and partners Jessica Terpstra and Andre de Neve have recently seen a number of interesting projects. The firm was advising Volker Wessels on a bid for a DBFM contract for the N33 motorway and in 2010 acted for OX 1 Leasing (part of the Sao Paolo listed OSX Brasil) on €420 million financing for a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to be leased to OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes.

The firm also acted for Facilicom, Sequoia and Volker Wessels on another bid for the DBFMO contract of a new prison in Zaanstad, Amsterdam, and Amarantis School Board on a DBFMO contract for three new school buildings in Noord Holland. In energy, the firm won a mandate from Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors on project financing for the Belwind offshore wind park.

Houthoff Buruma is the country's leading insolvency firm and earns its tier one position mainly for its work as bankruptcy trustees, where it is handling DSB Bank and Lehman Brothers bankruptcies and for its insolvency practice. It also has a strong restructuring arm. "First class, responsive, pragmatic, sophisticated, knowledgeable and engaged; they delivered," says one client who engaged the firm in restructuring and insolvency matters.

"Lots of visibility and good insolvency practitioners," says one peer while another commented that the firm is "absolutely leading in insolvency". In terms of value one client found the firm "very flexible, accommodating and understanding". Peers say Rutger Schimmelpenninck is "pre-eminent" in the field while Marcel Windt is recommended by clients as someone who "knows his stuff, is very confident in expressing his views (which gives us confidence) and has lots of experience".

The standout mandates sees Schimmelpenninck and recently made up-and-coming partner Frédéric Verhoeven acting as the court appointed bankruptcy trustees to Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in Dutch history. The Dutch registered Lehman Brothers Treasury Company issued instruments of $32 billion and the case will continue for a number of years. Schimmelpenninck is also acting as bankruptcy trustee in the bankruptcy of DSB Bank, valued at €7.8 billion.

The firm is also handling other bankruptcy cases for Agrenco Netherlands, Aria (Italian telecoms company), KPNQwest and Swiss Air. On the restructuring side, Windt has been advising Goldman Sachs on the restructuring of a large real estate fund.