Clifford Chance
The key contact at Clifford Chance on the equity side is Adrian Cartwright, the head of European equity capital markets and last year he led the team acting for Glencore on its headline grabbing IPO. The deal could prove key to Clifford's strategy going forward....
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The key contact at Clifford Chance on the equity side is Adrian Cartwright, the head of European equity capital markets and last year he led the team acting for Glencore on its headline grabbing IPO. The deal could prove key to Clifford's strategy going forward. While there is respect for the firm's team in the market, it has perhaps not been seen up till now as quite acting at the top table, with a stronger claim on debt side work. Now with a role on one of the year's largest deals there is a chance to enhance the firm's status and build up the practice further.
Outside and away from Glencore, one of the largest deals the team worked on was the IPO on the LSE of AZ Electronic Materials Group. The listing of the Luxembourg incorporated company is one of the largest private equity backed listings in the last few years.
In line with the market trend of Russian companies listing on the LSE, Cartwright and John Connolly also acted for the iron and coal producer the Koks Group on its $500 million IPO last year. Another Russian lister Nomos Bank also called in the firm to act on its London IPO. The listing raised $700 million.
Away from IPOs, the London team acted alongside the Frankfurt and Luxembourg offices on the €4 billion capital increase of Volkswagen. The deal, one of the largest ever done in Germany was done via an indirect rights issue and bookbuilding procedure.
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Leading lawyers
Adrian Cartwright
John Connolly
Clifford Chance
"They are going to continue to be strong, they have such a strong and universal team they can do everything," says one peer. Although the market noted that the firm is still a step behind the tier one firms, there remained plenty of respect for the practice....
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"They are going to continue to be strong, they have such a strong and universal team they can do everything," says one peer. Although the market noted that the firm is still a step behind the tier one firms, there remained plenty of respect for the practice.
Clients were particularly keen on David Dunnigan: "Excellent, absolutely excellent, very happy with the service provided, he's very good on the speed of response," says one, "He's very very sharp, very very good and he's got good manners in negotiations." Others pointed out that his skill lies in establishing relationships: "He's not a pure technical lawyer, his skill is handling the client and the relationship," says one, "He's business driven, he can understand and always see what the client is driving at and is trying to achieve."
However a number of clients pointed out that though the firm had good capacity – with one of the biggest teams in the market - sometimes communication it was felt could be improved: "We don't see the same continuity of junior support," says one client with experience of numerous firms in the market, "The juniors don't have the same links to certain partners."
A dominant highlight for the firm last year saw a team drawn from its London, Paris, Frankfurt and Luxembourg offices act on the €27 billion debt issuance programme for the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and the subsequent initial €5 billion issue. In addition to being structured using a number of different legal systems, the transaction had the added complication of needing to abide by the laws of each Eurozone member state. The negotiations and structuring also had to take into account the potential dual roles of the member states both as guarantors and borrowers. In London, David Dunnigan, Robert Trefny, Simon James, George Georgiev and Patrick Dougherty were all involved.
With the debt markets being used as a tool for refinancing there are many companies looking at the markets to ease their burden as their debt reaches maturity. In one such deal a team led by David Bickerton, on the capital markets side, acted for Angel Trains on its refinancing of bank debt due in June 2011. This was achieved through the establishment of a £4 billion programme for the issuance of secured guaranteed covenanted notes and the subsequent issues of £300 million ten year bullet notes and £500 million 25-year amortising notes. The bond provides for a switch to a hardwired intercreditor agreement following the full refinancing of the current senior facility.
Further refinancing work was undertaken for AerCap with the team assisting Goldman Sachs and Credit Agricole as the joint book runners and structuring agents of a $150 million issuance of 3.7% bonds due in 2021.
In the equity linked area, a team featuring Simon Sinclair and Chris Walton worked opposite Allen & Overy advising Nigerian oil and gas contractor Sea Trucks on an issue of $200 million convertible bonds due in 2015. The deal forms part of the firm's preparation for its IPO, with the bonds set to convert to shares in that situation.
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Leading lawyers
Stewart Dunlop
David Dunnigan
Simon Sinclair
Clifford Chance
Of all the UK firm's attempting to take a slice of the high-yield market, Clifford Chance efforts were the ones greeted with the most doubt by peers. "I would have thought before the recession that they would be best placed, but I just don't see them anywhere," says one and another agrees: "CC would be the tail of the pack....
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Of all the UK firm's attempting to take a slice of the high-yield market, Clifford Chance efforts were the ones greeted with the most doubt by peers. "I would have thought before the recession that they would be best placed, but I just don't see them anywhere," says one and another agrees: "CC would be the tail of the pack. They are no-where to be found which is just inexplicable."
This is of course only in comparison to its magic circle peers. The firm would still be considered ahead of the rest of the domestic market and many of the other smaller US offerings, however there was a sense that greater capacity is needed to bridge the gap to the market leaders.
One of the firm's largest deals last year saw it act for broadband company ONO on a €700 million Rule 144A/Reg S offering of 8.875% notes by a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The deal was led by John Connolly and Michael Dakin.
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Clifford Chance
The Clifford Chance derivatives team's main strength according to peers is its capacity: "A huge number of derivatives lawyers, but we haven't really seen them on the fall out from Lehmans," says one partner. "They've got Habib [Montani] who's extremely impressive but that aside I haven't had a whole lot to do with them....
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The Clifford Chance derivatives team's main strength according to peers is its capacity: "A huge number of derivatives lawyers, but we haven't really seen them on the fall out from Lehmans," says one partner. "They've got Habib [Montani] who's extremely impressive but that aside I haven't had a whole lot to do with them."
Certainly there is a consensus that the firm's magic circle peers Allen & Overy and Linklaters are a step ahead: "Clifford Chance are OK, they have definitely dropped significantly behind A&O and Links," says one peer and another agrees: "They still do a lot of loan related stuff, they've got some nice people there but I don't think it's a big focus for them."
A key deal last year saw the team advise the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the guarantee of $1 billion in emerging market trade finance receivables by Standard Chartered. The transaction sees the bank originate the portfolio from various merging market banks.
The team also advised on the restructuring of £500 million in floating rate securities of Pearl Group Holdings involving two bondholder consent solicitations.
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Leading lawyers
Habib Motani
Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance is still considered one of the leading practices in this area, with the ability to draw on its wider capital markets and finance experience: "Highly knowledgeable on regulatory and technical issues covering securitisation and they have ongoing market expertise," says one client.RMBS has been slowly returning to the market in the last year and the Clifford Chance team has taken full advantage....
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Clifford Chance is still considered one of the leading practices in this area, with the ability to draw on its wider capital markets and finance experience: "Highly knowledgeable on regulatory and technical issues covering securitisation and they have ongoing market expertise," says one client.
RMBS has been slowly returning to the market in the last year and the Clifford Chance team has taken full advantage. In September 2010, Kevin Ingram and up and coming partner Emma Matebalavu advised RBS as originator and Arran Residential Mortgages Funding as issuer of a £4.7 billion RMBS transaction. This was RBS's first foray back into the UK RMBS market since the crash.
Matebalavu also acted for Bank of Scotland as seller, Lloyds TSB as arranger and Headingly RMBS as issuer of a £1.17 billion RMBS. Lead partner Peter Voisey meanwhile acted for JPMorgan Securities as arranger and joint lead manager of the Co-operative Bank's first RMBS issuance of £2.5 billion of triple-A rated notes, Silk Road Finance Number One. The deal was born out of the Co-ops acquisition of Britannia with the latter's mortgage portfolio being used as collateral.
Although the firm is often praised for its capacity, a number of clients mentioned that the firm had developed a habit of over utilising its large teams: "We weren't happy with Clifford Chance and still aren't," says one. "They overlawyered everything, they just kept things going on for months, creating problems that weren't there just so they could solve them."
On the securitisation side a key highlight saw Prashanth Satyadeva advise Hertz Europe on a securitisation of its vehicle fleets in France and the Netherlands as part of its wider refinancing. The issue of funding notes by International Fleet Financing was used to repay existing bonds under the group's initial pan-European vehicle fleet securitisation. The firm are hopeful of seeing more securitisation transactions in this manner from sub-investment grade corporates.
Another highlight saw Steve Curtis advise Wales & West Utilities over the establishment of a £5 billion whole business securitisation bond. This involved two issues of 'flipper' bonds, which migrate into the securitisation programme.
In other areas, the team acted for HBOS on the transfer of a credit card receivables from Lloyds to Bank of Scotland under the Penarth credit card master trust programme and teams from London, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Milan and Paris combined to advise Crédit Agricole as arranger and Banca IMI as manager of an auto-loan portfolio refinancing for FGA Bank German, Fiat's German auto finance arm.
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Leading lawyers
Stephen Curtis
Andrew Forryan
Neil Hamilton
Kevin Ingram
Peter Voisey
Bank lending - lender side
Bank lending - company side
Bank lending - sponsor side
Clifford Chance
The market remains convinced that Clifford Chance's real strength remains as bank side counsel. "Clifford Chance has a got a decent corporate client base but that's dwarfed by its bank client base," says one peer and another agrees: "Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance are still the biggest lawyers on the lenders side....
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The market remains convinced that Clifford Chance's real strength remains as bank side counsel. "Clifford Chance has a got a decent corporate client base but that's dwarfed by its bank client base," says one peer and another agrees: "Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance are still the biggest lawyers on the lenders side."
Company and sponsor side mandates still form an important part of the firm's work though and it remains the only practice with a top tier ranking in all three sections of the bank lending table, which is testament to its flexible and balanced offering.
The firm's banking relationships are also appreciated by clients. One who worked with James Butters says: "I rate him highly, he's probably the best lawyer in London for me. He organised the banks, there was about 10 involved, he had the thoughts of the banks, he got people on-board he treats people with respect." A client of Richard Sharpel had similar comments: "It was very difficult to say anything bad about him, it was a very difficult transaction, he calmed the situation in the end, because he knew what the bank situation was."
As for most practices, acquisition finance has made up the bulk of the work for the team last year. One of the largest mandates saw a team led by Michael Bates acting for RBS, Deutsche Bank, BarCap, BNP Paribas, Lloyds, Mizuho and Santander as lenders of the £5.8 billion facilities to Cheong Kong Infrastructure for the acquisition of EDF's UK business.
Bates is another favourite among clients: "Michael is one of the best lawyers in the City. He's very experienced anyway, he understands the infrastructure sector very well, he's got a very good manner, he deals with a number of banks at the same time," says one client. "He focuses banks on what they need to look at."
In line with the recent market trend for combined bank and bond financing, last year partners James Johnson and Carol Van der Vorst acted for Citi, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan as the lenders of a senior credit facility as part of a €1.7 billion financing including a high-yield bond issue, granted to Ardagh Glass for its acquisition of metal packaging company Impress.
In a similar issue, this time on the sponsor side, Richard Sharples and Felicity Reardon acted for Candover Partners, the Goldman Sachs Group and Expro Holdings UK 3 as the sponsors and borrowers of $1.8 billion refinancing facilities made up of £362 million in mezzanine facilities, a $100 million revolving credit facility and a $1.4 million high-yield bond issue.
With clients looking for high-yield expertise in the current environment, clients pointed out James Johnson: "He's up with the best that I have worked with, he's got a wealth of experience. In the deal we have just done there was a high-yield aspect to it, he clearly knows the topic and had a lot of experience in that," says one.
Another major sponsor side mandate saw Malcolm Sweeting and Tomasz Wozniak acting for Babcock International Group on the £1.3 billion financing for the acquisition of the VT Group.
Due to the nature of the market, refinancing and restructuring work is still prevalent. Last year Bates and Melissa Gardiner acted for Lloyds and RBS as the lenders of £3.4 billion in refinancing for diamond group De Beers. The deal also involved a second banking syndicate made up of South African institutions. Another major debt restructuring saw the team advise the borrowers DSI International on a €1.2 billion debt for equity swap.
Highlighting the firm's strong Africa practice, a team including Geeta Khehar and Chris Page acting for Absa Bank, Barclays Bank Zambia, Citibank Zambia, Citi and Standard Chartered Bank Zambia on a £49 million facility made available to Zambian Breweries.
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Leading lawyers
Michael Bates
Mark Campbell
Charles Cochrane
Alan Inglis
Malcolm Sweeting
Financial services regulatory - non-contentious
Financial services regulatory -contentious
Clifford Chance
Clifford's non-contentious practice stands tall alongside magic circle rivals Freshfields and Linklaters at the top of the market. Backed up by the talents of its deep banking and structured finance practices, the firm is well set to advise on any regulatory issues clients may have....
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Clifford's non-contentious practice stands tall alongside magic circle rivals Freshfields and Linklaters at the top of the market. Backed up by the talents of its deep banking and structured finance practices, the firm is well set to advise on any regulatory issues clients may have.
"I think no-one in their right mind would disagree with having Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Freshfields in tier one. They are obviously practices of considerable size and of considerable structure," says one peer.
The firm advises on a wide array of issues including business reorganisations and regulatory advice to companies branching out into new areas of business. In the latter area, last year Simon Crown acted for a major UK retailer on the development of its new cash handling business. As the new venture involves offering strictly regulated services the firm had to provide advice on the FSA's licensing process and the subsequent proposal and documentation provided to the FSA.
African work has been a key area of interest for UK teams recently and alongside the obvious project finance and other banking work that parts of the continent have thrown up, there is of course a demand for regulatory advice running in unison. In one interesting project led by Riyadh based Tim Plews and Andrew Henderson, the firm acted for a public body of one African country on the regulatory aspects of the establishment of a new financial services centre. The project is being developed following the model established by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a semi-autonomous space with individual regulations designed to encourage foreign investment. The team could draw on its experience advising on the establishment of the DIFC itself to move the project forward.
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Leading lawyers
Chris Bates
Simon Gleeson
Dermot Turing
Clifford Chance
"I think that Clifford Chance has bounced back a little bit, much stronger than they were before, I get the impression that Clifford Chance is ahead of A&O and A&O is ahead of Herbert Smith." This comment from one peer was a typical assessment of the M&A second tier, however the question of which of the three firms mentioned could be said to have the edge brought a mixed response with no clear outcome....
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"I think that Clifford Chance has bounced back a little bit, much stronger than they were before, I get the impression that Clifford Chance is ahead of A&O and A&O is ahead of Herbert Smith." This comment from one peer was a typical assessment of the M&A second tier, however the question of which of the three firms mentioned could be said to have the edge brought a mixed response with no clear outcome.
As a result Clifford Chance maintains its tier two position with there being little disagreement that the firm's deal list and reputation justified its standing.
The team led by Simon Tinkler has taken steps to increase its manpower taking Tim Lewis from Macfarlanes. There was also a fair amount of movement out of London to the firm's other outposts. Guy Norman and Nigel Wellings both moved to Dubai in October and July 2010 respectively, while Nick Rees made the shift to Moscow in May 2010.
Energy and infrastructure related projects proved to be the most successful area of practice for the firm last year. One of the largest deals saw the team act for GDF's Energy International division on its £17 billion merger with GDF Suez, with the deal enacted through a reverse takeover. Pipe manufacturer Wellstream Holdings also called in the firm to advise on its £800 million sale to General Electric.
The team also acted for JPMorgan Infrastructure Investment Fund as lead investor in the acquisition of Grupo ACS' Spanish ports business for €720 billion.
One deal, which gained attention due to the fact that it involved a public asset, saw the team act for Eurotunnel, M&G Investments and Goldman Sachs on a bid for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link High Speed 1.
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Leading lawyers
Daniel Kossoff
David Pearson
David Pudge
Private equity - fund formation
Private equity - transactions
Clifford Chance
"I think Cliffords still sit comfortably in tier one and I say this because they have quite a range of skills, but they did have a significant loss in fund formation." This view from one rival sums up how Clifford's is seen now in the market....
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"I think Cliffords still sit comfortably in tier one and I say this because they have quite a range of skills, but they did have a significant loss in fund formation." This view from one rival sums up how Clifford's is seen now in the market. While few doubt the firm's continued dominance in the transactional space, a significant loss of personnel on the funds side has severely curtailed the firm's practice. Partners Ed Gander, Nigel Clark and Nick Benson alongside tax partner Jonathan Kandel all departed the firm in June to join the fledgling practice at Weil Gotshal. The team was followed in July by associates Stephen Fox and David Irvine who also moved to the US firm. Fox is seen as a particular loss as it was perceived that he would be the one to pick up the pieces after the initial departures.
These recent moves come a year after former funds chief Jason Glover left for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. With Nigel Hatfield now the only funds partner left in London the market will wait to see if the firm can rebuild.
Despite these fairly major setbacks, on the transactional side the firm is still seen as the one to beat. Indeed peers mention that in some ways the department has been a victim of its own success, as one partner explains: "I think they are the European market leader, but they have lost people to management, David Walker is doing a lot of management." Another agrees: "The problem is that they have a lot of good people in private equity and then those people get moved to management." However despite these minor distractions, Walker and other members of the team with management responsibilities remain active in transactions and their experience is a boon for the team.
The ten partner team still led by Walker has been slightly depleted by the retirement of James Baird in April 2011, but the depth of talent at the firm will ensure that the impact is minimal.
One clear highlight saw a team led by Kem Ihenacho and Patrick Sarch advise CVC Capital Partners and Apollo Management on the second largest take private deal of 2010 as they acquired Brit Insurance for £888 million. The deal had involvement from the firm's Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Beijing, Washington and Brussels offices and was confirmed in March 2011.
One new client this year is Montagu Private Equity and in October 2010 head of corporate Simon Tinkler acted for them on the acquisition of the Host Europe Group from Oakley capital for £222 million.
Department head Walker acted alongside Amy Mahon last year on another deal for longstanding client Warburg Pincus. June 2010 saw the company acquire the Poundland Group from Advent International and the shareholders in a secondary buyout. This followed work in February 2010 when a team led by Spencer Baylin advised on Warburg's acquisition of the Survitec Group.
In the medical sector Jonny Myers acted for Cregstar Bidco (a company formed funds from the Permira fund, who acted as the sponsor) on its acquisition of Creganna-Tactx medical, while Spencer Baylin acted for Actis on the $726 million disposal of Paras Pharmaceuticals, which is considered to be the largest ever exit by a PE fund in India.
Linking up with its Italian office, a London team led by Mathew Layton and Joel Ziff acted for Birds Eye Iglo Group and Permira on the acquisition by Boreas Bidco (a subsidiary of Birdseye) of Findus Italia for €805 million.
A final highlight saw the team act for the Carlyle Group on the high-profile acquisition of RAC from Aviva. Walker and Ihenacho acted on the deal and a separate team from the firm also advised the lending banks led by JPMorgan.
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Leading lawyers
James Baird
Daniel Kossoff
Matthew Layton
David Pearson
Simon Tinkler
David Walker
Clifford Chance
The project finance practice at Clifford Chance leverages off the firm's strong banking and corporate client base and can point to a steady stream of mandates arising from both sides.Jeremy Connick is one of the firm's leading lights: "With his background and experience he has excellent technical skills, he has seen and done so many deals....
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The project finance practice at Clifford Chance leverages off the firm's strong banking and corporate client base and can point to a steady stream of mandates arising from both sides.
Jeremy Connick is one of the firm's leading lights: "With his background and experience he has excellent technical skills, he has seen and done so many deals. He has advised us on one wind deal in Africa and one in Europe and he clearly has a lot of prior knowledge so he can bring that to bear," says one client, who also pointed to the firm's strength in depth: "I don't know if its just CC who have associates who are so excited about their work. I think that Jeremy can be tough on the trainees but they value his approach." Another agrees: "Associates – they are head and shoulders above other firms we're working with, they can provide advice that 90% of the time will be more than suitable."
The other leading partner Andrew Grenville is also commended, particularly for his experience in the power sector: "He picks up issues before you have thought of them, he's happy to provide a view on things which are more commercially focused," says another client. "Andrew, given his position (within the power industry), is more willing to come forward and offer his position on new ideas and projects we are developing." Another client also points out Grenville's power experience. "Andrew's team is pre-eminent in the power industry. What he brings is experience, he has a lot of gravitas within the industry and across that world and because of that people fall behind his view which makes it a lot easier for me when I go into meetings, I can say that Andrew has suggested something and people respect that view, he serves a purpose by having that gravitas."
Rail related projects were high on the agenda for the team last year and in one example Gavin Teague led a team advising the prospective arrangers, including BNP Paribas, RBS and Bank of America, to the bid consortium comprising of Bombardier, Serco and Rreef on their pitch for the £1 billion PPP (public-private partnership) project to manufacture and maintain the new fleet of rolling stock designated for the London Thameslink rail project. The bid was eventually won by Siemens and criticism was levelled in some quarters at the result with the suggestion that greater value should have been attached to the Bombardier bid as the company has a UK manufacturing plant thus keeping jobs within the country.
Although not strictly finance related, the firm's wider projects team can also point to a trio of projects related to Eurostar, again showing the strength of the rail infrastructure group. One such project saw the team act for two separate consortiums – and the senior funders to yet another consortium – on the £2.1 billion bid process for High Speed 1, the entity which controls the high speed link between London and the Channel Tunnel. The team also acted for Eurostar on its transition to a joint venture structure – comprised of the UK, French and Belgian parties - and on its £500 million financing for the acquisition of a new high-speed fleet for the line.
Stepping away from rail but remaining in infrastructure, a long term project saw a team comprising Connick, David Metzger, Nigel Howorth, James Pay and Andrew Rolfe advising the lenders including various banks and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the £1.5 billion funding for the London Gateway project, a deep sea container port located on the river Thames in Essex.
In line with the market, renewable energy has also proved to be a busy sector for the firm, in particular wind farm projects. In the CEE (Central & Eastern Europe) Jeremy Connick acted for the lenders including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on the €175 million funding for the 120MW Relax wind farm in Poland . A similar deal saw John Wilkins act alongside the firm's Romanian team advising EDP Renovaveis as the sponsor on a €186 million financing for the 90MW Pestera and 138MW Cernavoda wind farms in Romania.
International ability is critical and clients can't fault the team on this: "The good thing about Clifford Chance is that they have offices in all types of countries, they have the same way of working all over. It was very smooth because we only worked through the guys in London. We didn't have to get involved in the nitty gritty."
The African power sector is an area, which has been creating a lot of mandates for UK firms in recent years, however these are often focused on more traditional energy production like coal, oil or natural gas. However last year found partner Jeremy Connick acting for Infraco on the first wind project in sub-Saharan Africa. The €70 million PPP will see a wind farm constructed in Cape Verde. The mandate was won by the firm on the premise that the firm could deliver the project in a more streamlined manner than competitors including slimming down the project's power purchase agreement (PPA) to make it more efficient.
Outside of renewables, London partner Ranbir Hunjan acted alongside partners from the firm's US and Singapore offices to advise the lenders on the $3 billion financing for a new coal fired power plant in Sasan in India and the related development of the nearby cola mine at Moher.
The oil and gas team at the firm was also active, particularly in Russia. Although largely run out of the firm's Paris and Moscow offices, London partner Russell Wells had a role acting for the export credit agencies and lenders on a €7.2 billion gas pipeline joint venture between Russia and Germany. In another joint venture Tim Steadman acted for the Shtokman Development joint venture between Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro on the $25 billion natural gas field.
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Leading lawyers
Jeremy Connick
Andrew Grenville
Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance stands beside Allen & Overy as the prime bank side counsel in major restructurings across Europe and the Middle East. Led by Mark Hyde, few would argue against the team's continuing ranking in the top tier....
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Clifford Chance stands beside Allen & Overy as the prime bank side counsel in major restructurings across Europe and the Middle East. Led by Mark Hyde, few would argue against the team's continuing ranking in the top tier.
One client who worked with Nick Frome says: "They did a good job, no hesitation using him again he is superb. Good resources, good team. They designate a particular partner for a particular business area. Nick's only weakness is spending too long a time pursuing something that can be avoided." Another says: "Nick was very keen to innovate, comes up with new ideas, quite academic, the team as a whole is able to find a way around a problems to fit circumstances."
The firm can also point to a more rounded corporate side practice than its nearest competitors with one obvious example seeing the firm go head to head with key rival A&O on the restructuring of Dubai World, with Clifford Chance representing the state-owned entity. Consisting of four major restructurings under the umbrella of the parent deal, the total value of the mandate was no less than $23 billion. The deal received a great deal of attention as it represented arguably the first chink in the armour of Dubai's extravagant economic advance and the first major restructuring of its kind in the Middle East involving a state-owned entity. Alongside the main restructuring the team also acted for Nakheel on its debt restructuring and separation from Dubai World. This involved negotiations with trade creditors and lenders of both Islamic and conventional facilities. Mark Hyde, Melissa Coakley and Catherine Bridge were the principal partners alongside a London finance team and a separate team on the ground in Dubai.
Another major mandate saw a team led by Adrian Cohen, Roger Leese, Chris Higgins and Nicky Reader acting for private placement noteholders in relation to the £2.2 billion restructuring of Cattles, with the debt consisting of bank and bond facilities.
Showing its bank side strength the team acted for the senior lenders in the €950 million restructuring of Independent News and Media. With the debt again a combination of bank and bond facilities the team brought in partners from its finance, capital markets and corporate teams. The team was led by Nick Frome and Nicola Wherity and Frome also acted again for the senior lenders on the restructuring of £500 million of senior and mezzanine facilities granted to Alliance Medical.
In an example of the increasing trend of using English schemes of arrangement in other jurisdictions the team advised the senior co-ordinating committee consisting of York Capital and Bank of Ireland on the restructuring and debt restructuring of Tele Columbus consisting of a sale of shares to a lender controlled vehicle at the same time as a German law share pledge enforcement process. As a result the London team worked with their Frankfurt contemporaries.
In May 2011 the team was boosted by the promotion of John MacLennan to the partnership. He hit the ground running acting, alongside Philip Hertz, for RBS and other members of a bank syndicate acting on the restructuring and pre-pack administration sale of the Ultralase Group.
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Leading lawyers
Adrian Cohen
Nicholas Frome
Philip Hertz
Mark Hyde
David Steinberg
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