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

Through 2010 and 2011 Loyens & Loeff won a series of notable referrals, including a large debt issuance and a high-yield bond issuance. The firm's leading lawyer Marc Vermylen has a strong reputation among peers.

The firm turns over a lower volume of deals than some competitors but the deals it acts on tend to be of a high standard. This may explain the rather patchy market reputation it has, compared to firms that clock in a regular stream of mid-sized deals. Nevertheless, the transactions speak for themselves and Loyens maintains its position in the rankings.

The firm worked alongside the US and UK offices Kirkland & Ellis to advise Ideal Standard/Bain Capital on a €285 million high-yield bond issue, which was embarked upon as part of a restructuring process. The deal was done with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

The firm also worked alongside the German office of Freshfields to advise Continental on multiple bond issues for a total of €3 billion and finally GE Commercial Finance on the securitisation of trade receivables of the IAC group for €125 million (among other securitisations).

Loyens & Loeff has by all accounts a very solid position as a leading banking and finance firm and its ubiquitous leading partner, Marc Vermylen, is well-known by peers.

One of the firm's winning points is pragmatism. According to a banking client, the firm is "pragmatic and knows what the bank needs and how it can be achieved". Another picks out the same quality: "We look for the best firms in the market to advise us on transactions and from what we see... they are much more pragmatic than [other firms]."

In a direct comparison to its peers, one commentator says: "They are capable of leading on big deals, which we wouldn't necessarily see from its competitors." Significant banking deals saw the firm work alongside US firm Skadden Arps to advise Balta Group on a €260 million syndicated refinancing, and with Clifford Chance to assist Commerzbank, HSH Nordbank and UniCredit on a €110 million financing to Stemcore.

On the project finance side, the firm was mandated by UK firm Watson Farley Williams as Belgian counsel to advise the European Investment Bank (EIB), EKF, KfW, KBC, Dexia, ASN, Rabobank, Commerzbank and Société Générale on Belgian aspects of a €912 million financing for an off-shore wind farm.

According to one client, "Vermylen has a lot of knowledge especially in renewable energy businesses".

Loyens & Loeff is known most for its leading tax practice and to a certain extent the firm leverages off this to act on large M&A deals. Peter Callens remains the best known personality in the department for M&A, however corporate head Grégoire Jakhian and partner Stefaan Deckmyn also led on deals last year.

Callens advised Balta Industries (portfolio company of Doughty Hansen) on its acquisition of DOMO Oudenaarde, DOMO Zele and DOMO Gent Industries from DOMO. He also advised NPM Capital, a Dutch based private equity firm, on its acquisition of De Belgische Distributiedienst and RSM Italia from TNT.

Jakhian led a team to support Trimble Navigation in its acquisition of a major stake in Punch Telematix for €10 million while Deckmyn led on advise APM Terminals on its sale of a 25% stake of its Zeebrugge container terminal to Shanghai International Port Group for €27 million.

The firm handled a large volume of M&A transactions through the Benelux region coming second only to Allen & Overy.

Loyens & Loeff is an established Benelux firm, headquartered in Rotterdam but who maintain a large presence in Luxembourg. The firm has had something of an unsettled year, with a vast number of comings and goings.

Management head Marc Meyers advised the German private equity firm Capital Management Partners as it closed one of its funds. The fund had been focused on turnaround investments in Luxembourg, and the work was completed in March 20"Loyens & Loeff is very big on investment work," says one partner, commenting on a firm that does get its fair share of mandates in this area.

For example, a team consisting of Johan Terblanche and Marjorie Andre advised First State Investments UK and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as to the reorganisation and closing of their EDIF and German Feeder Fund in the latter months of 2010. A second part of this deal entailed the team acting for them on the structuring and completion of a number of infrastructure assets both in the UK but also in Spain too. Thus far the funds have raised around €600 million, though this is less than half the intended target, which is €1.5 billion overall.

On another interesting deal Investment 11 with a value of €175 million.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.