‘Incredibly strong’ – debt counsel gear up for another boom year in leveraged finance

‘Incredibly strong’ – debt counsel gear up for another boom year in leveraged finance

Nathalie Tidman finds lawyers bemused by crazy pricing and a wall of debt

‘Short of Trump nuking North Korea, I can’t see any immediate problems on the horizon,’ reflects Latham & Watkins partner Christopher Kandel. It is safe to say finance advisers believe the recent bonanza of European leveraged finance activity will continue through 2018 on the back of another record year for the European market. Continue reading “‘Incredibly strong’ – debt counsel gear up for another boom year in leveraged finance”

‘A no-brainer’: Milbank hires four-partner Cadwalader team to upgrade City restructuring business

‘A no-brainer’: Milbank hires four-partner Cadwalader team to upgrade City restructuring business

It has long been a prestigious New York shop without ever quite gaining critical mass in London, but Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy looks to be widening its ambitions after securing a four-partner restructuring team from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.

The move greatly expands Milbank’s City finance team, and includes Cadwaladers’ global financial restructuring co-chair Yushan Ng. He will be joined by partners Jacqueline Ingram, Karen McMaster and Sinjini Saha. Clients of the team include brand name sponsors Oaktree, KKR, Centerbridge Capital Partners and Blackstone. Continue reading “‘A no-brainer’: Milbank hires four-partner Cadwalader team to upgrade City restructuring business”

Waiting for Carney – hard times and hard choices for restructuring counsel

Waiting for Carney – hard times and hard choices for restructuring counsel

‘Restructuring types will tell you the market’s just about to take off. It’s all going to hell in a handcart – catastrophe just around the corner,’ says Peter Baldwin, partner and co-head of Ropes & Gray’s special situations practice. Baldwin’s comments, of course, carry more than a hint of irony as hardened insolvency practitioners have been confidently – and wrongly – predicting an explosion of demand for their services since the banking crisis, only to be frustrated by the New Normal of permanently low interest rates.

But while restructuring counsel have cut increasingly forlorn figures in recent years, like Beckett characters forever hoping for the arrival of their Godot – or at least a decent rate rise from Mark Carney – nearly ten years on from the global financial crisis, they wait still. Continue reading “Waiting for Carney – hard times and hard choices for restructuring counsel”

High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution

High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution

White collar specialists scramble in landmark prosecution

White-collar crime specialists have scrambled across the City as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last month charged Barclays and four former executives with conspiracy to commit fraud, false representation and unlawful financial assistance in arranging a £7.3bn Qatar funding deal at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

Continue reading “High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution”

‘Hugely complicated’: Watson Farley, White & Case, A&O line up on $14bn shipping deal

‘Hugely complicated’: Watson Farley, White & Case, A&O line up on $14bn shipping deal

Watson Farley & Williams has advised a group of 27 international and local banks acting as financiers on a $14bn merger between shipping giants Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC).

The tie-up will create one of the five largest container shipping lines in the world, with 230 vessels and a combined turnover of around $12bn.

Continue reading “‘Hugely complicated’: Watson Farley, White & Case, A&O line up on $14bn shipping deal”

High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution

High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution

City white-collar crime specialists have been drafted in as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today (20 June) charged Barclays and four former executives with conspiracy to commit fraud, false representation and unlawful financial assistance in arranging a £7.3bn Qatar funding deal at the height of the financial crisis – the first such prosecution of a bank.

Continue reading “High-stakes: White-collar crime teams ready as SFO hits Barclays with landmark prosecution”

Insolvency and Restructuring: Responsive approach to clients needs

Insolvency and Restructuring: Responsive approach to clients needs

Restructuring and insolvency situations call for practitioners who combine thorough legal expertise with in-depth knowledge of the market and a strong focus on the clients’ needs.

Prager Dreifuss is one of the leading Swiss law firms for insolvency and restructuring, including over 40 lawyers and a total of around 80 employees at our offices in Zürich, Bern and Brussels.

With specialised experience ranging from M&A and banking and finance to dispute resolution, insurance law, private clients and tax, the firm is ideally placed to offer our clients a full and well-rounded service.

Continue reading “Insolvency and Restructuring: Responsive approach to clients needs”

The Finance View – Polish and range assured but does CC still have ambition to excel in the cut-throat levfin world?

The Finance View – Polish and range assured but does CC still have ambition to excel in the cut-throat levfin world?

Victoria Young and Georgiana Tudor assess the Magic Circle firm’s deal finance practice

‘Clifford Chance (CC)’s decline has been significant,’ one leading leveraged finance partner opines. ‘Ten years ago I would have pegged them as in the leading three or four in this space, but they are gently scaling down.’

Continue reading “The Finance View – Polish and range assured but does CC still have ambition to excel in the cut-throat levfin world?”