Loyens & Loeff
The fiercely independent Loyens & Loeff is widely recommended as one of the top firms for structured finance and securitisations, most notably with Mariëtte van't Westeinde, who one peer says is "very experienced and very good".
The team is led by Nelleke Krol in Amsterdam and Peter Corten in London....
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The fiercely independent Loyens & Loeff is widely recommended as one of the top firms for structured finance and securitisations, most notably with Mariëtte van't Westeinde, who one peer says is "very experienced and very good".
The team is led by Nelleke Krol in Amsterdam and Peter Corten in London.
"What I liked about them was that the partner was directly involved and cooperative in terms of working with you and looking for a solution," says one satisfied client, "it has a smaller team than NautaDutilh or Allen & Overy... but you know who you are working with and there is more certainty, and they were good on timings". Another client says the firm is "a purely Dutch based firm so they can't do US deals but for Dutch RMBS they do very well and are good value for money".
With Krol, Corten and Kitty Lieverse at the helm the firm acted on a number of deals which show good versatility. It advised LBI Netherlands on a rights issue (led by Krol), IFCO Systems on a secondary offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and Russian entity Euroset Holding on an aborted IPO on the LSE. An additional interesting deal saw them act for Brack Capital on its IPO on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, which included documentation in Hebrew.
Krol, with her associate protégé Martijn Schoonewille, advised the underwriters on Nielsen Holdings' IPO on the NYSE with one of the few convertible bond issues. The team also advised Owens-Illinois Group, Phoenix PIB Finance and Coca-Cola HBC Finance on issuances of senior, senior unsecured and fixed rate notes for €500 million, €506 million and €300 million respectively.
L&L was very active in securitisations, with Westeinde advising Aegeon on Saecure 7, 8 and 9 RMBS totalling over €3 billion and Obvion as originator of STORM I, II, III and IV RMBS totalling €4 billion.
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Leading lawyers
Nelleke Krol
Kitty Lieverse
Mariëtte van't Westeinde
Loyens & Loeff
Loyens & Loeff gets strong feedback from the market. "Very commercial firm so hats off to them," says one peer, "they do a good job of chasing clients down; they've built a good reputation, they're not desperately aggressive, and they have a large corporate and private equity client base from their tax core"....
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Loyens & Loeff gets strong feedback from the market. "Very commercial firm so hats off to them," says one peer, "they do a good job of chasing clients down; they've built a good reputation, they're not desperately aggressive, and they have a large corporate and private equity client base from their tax core".
Clients say Gianluca Kreuze, who made partner in 2010, "has lots of energy, is practical and talented," while Kitty Lieverse "is very knowledgeable when it comes to regulatory work, very exceptional". "A very good law firm in banking, they have done extremely well," says a peer, "they do a lot of interesting transactions especially for Dutch lenders; they really know what they are doing and have done some good work for sponsors and local and European private equity funds".
Willem Jarigsma, who one peer says is "very capable on acquisition finance", advised ING Bank on a €55 million acquisition financing to an asset-light business and MCB International on a €230 million asset-backed bilateral facility from Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank, ING, KBC and ABN AMRO.
Jarigsma also acted for Koninklijke Volker Wessels on a rare forward start facility for €680 million and for Nieuwe Steen Investments on a €250 million real estate financing. Ship finance expert Krueze advised ABN AMRO on two large ship financings of $198 million and $120 million to Vroon and Nile Dutch, respectively.
Associates Kees Hooft, Jan Willem Möller, Wytse Huidekoper and Vilmar Feenstra supported on all the deals.
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Leading lawyers
Willem Jarigsma,
Gianluca Kreuze
Kitty Lieverse
Loyens & Loeff
Loyens & Loeff gets good feedback from the market though opinions vary when it comes to its market position. It is "probably the strongest of the local firms," says one peer....
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Loyens & Loeff gets good feedback from the market though opinions vary when it comes to its market position. It is "probably the strongest of the local firms," says one peer. In terms of volume, the firm was listed second in the market by one local publication, with 13 closed deals in the first quarter of 2011. On balance the firm moves up a tier thanks to some top class practices in certain areas of M&A.
"There are some very good people there," says one peer, "we see Bas Vletter regularly and Herman Kaemingk... they have a tremendous real estate practice". The firm does not hire laterally but recently promoted Rotterdam-based Jan-Willem van Rooij to the partnership. It has a huge tax practice and leverages off it for corporate clients and is strong in energy related work, real estate and private equity.
One of the standout M&A transactions saw Vletter advise Bain Capital on the €650 million acquisition of a majority stake in IMCD Group from AAC Capital Partners, closing in December 2010, while Harmen Holtrop acted for the Carlyle Group on its acquisition of AlpInvest Partners from PGGM and ABP Pension Fund.
Philip van Verschuer led a team to advise General Atlantic on the disposal of GlobalCollect to Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS) for €452 million, while Kaemingk represented AAC Capital Partners on the disposal of CleanLeaseFortex to Egeria in a secondary buyout.
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Leading lawyers
Philip van Verschuer
Bas Vletter
Loyens & Loeff
Loyens & Loeff is another of the Dutch firm's that works closely with its Belgian project finance team, which is led by Marc Vermylen. According to market feedback, the firm does crop up on project financing under general finance partner Willem Jarigsma but not too often, especially when it comes to the world of public-private partnerships (PPP)....
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Loyens & Loeff is another of the Dutch firm's that works closely with its Belgian project finance team, which is led by Marc Vermylen. According to market feedback, the firm does crop up on project financing under general finance partner Willem Jarigsma but not too often, especially when it comes to the world of public-private partnerships (PPP).
The firm is best known for its involvement on the corporate and tax side in energy and utility deals. Corporate partner Max Oosterhuis has a big name in energy, with one peer saying "he is the best I've ever known, he knows how a power plant works in detail".
Recent work has seen the team involved in wind projects in Belgium and the Netherlands.
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Leading lawyers
Willem Jarigsma
Loyens & Loeff
Loyens & Loeff focuses on restructuring and insolvency (it does not act as a bankruptcy receiver) and keeps its ranking this year thanks to its very commercially friendly approach. "We typically favour them," says one client, "we are very comfortable with them as individuals, they very commercial and very practical; they are the best for the commerciality of it, quick advice and to the point - very user friendly"....
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Loyens & Loeff focuses on restructuring and insolvency (it does not act as a bankruptcy receiver) and keeps its ranking this year thanks to its very commercially friendly approach. "We typically favour them," says one client, "we are very comfortable with them as individuals, they very commercial and very practical; they are the best for the commerciality of it, quick advice and to the point - very user friendly".
One client recommends lead partner Hendrik van Druten because he "gives answers quickly and follows up quickly; he doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary detail". Senior associate Vincent Vroom is "the star of tomorrow" says another, who adds that the firm is also "good at the corporate governance aspects - my go-to firm, by far my first choice".
Loyens & Loeff received a number of referrals in 2010-2011 to act as leading counsel on global restructurings, among them from Bingham McCutchen and White & Case. The highest profile deal to its name in 2010 was the firms role as counsel to Oaktree Capital, the largest of the senior lenders to Almatis. Almatis was one of, if not the, largest restructuring (€1.2 billion) of the Dutch market in 2010.
The firm, led by Vroom, also won mandates from bondholders in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and in early 2011 was engaged by Consolis, a long standing client, on a successful pan-European restructuring.
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Leading lawyers
Hendrik van Druten
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