Banking & Finance

Combining the expertise of three of our most successful practice groups, Corporate, Property and Corporate Recovery the firm has created one of the most successful Banking & Finance teams in the South East.

Corporate – the largest and most experienced corporate lawyers in the Thames Valley
Property – one of the leading commercial property legal teams in the Thames Valley, Berks, Oxon, M4/M40
Corporate Recovery - the top ranked insolvency lawyers in the South East

It is supported by our Dispute Resolution group one of the few litigation teams outside the City to have specific expertise in banking disputes.

The group is also able to deal with banking and finance work in non UK jurisdictions through the firm’s membership of Lawrope, a network of leading European law firms, and through its relationships with a number of North American law firms.

In 2006 the group was appointed to The Royal Bank of Scotland’s banking panel following recent appointments to panels for Bank of Ireland and Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.

In addition to this, the team saw a successful Barclays re-panelling (for the third time). With existing panel appointments for Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale (National Australia Bank) and Allied Irish Bank, as well as non-panel work during the past year for the likes of HSBC and Handelsbanken (the UK trading style of Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ), one of Sweden’s leading banks) this means that the team is on more bank panels and working for more banks than any other Thames Valley based firm, and more than most City and national firms, placing it clearly in the premier league for this type of work.

The team provides the complete range of structured finance and lending advice to borrowers and lenders including:

Preparation and agreement of facility documentation
Taking and giving debentures over assets of companies and LLPs
Asset backed finance, including invoice discounting
Charges over freehold and leasehold properties
Security over contracts
Security over intellectual property rights
Inter-creditor arrangements
Assignment of life policies
Providing letters of opinion and arranging foreign legal opinions
Assignment of the benefit of reports and copyrights
Assignment of benefit of building contracts
Parent company guarantees and performance bonds
Collateral warranties incorporating “step in” rights
Legal due diligence reporting
Consideration of financial assistance issues

Recent Banking and Finance work includes:

Acting for a US corporation in relation to the securitisation of an $80 million worldwide syndicated loan facility
A £10 million refinancing of transactions in relation to partially completed and completed developments. These comprised both residential and business units and included the organisation of a foreign legal opinion, legal charges, assignment of the benefit of the building contract, collateral warranties and professionals
Acting for a bank in relation to a multi-currency term loan facility to finance an MBO of a specialist engineering group. The transaction involved consideration of security from both UK and overseas subsidiaries
The financing of an insurance broking group including advice on consumer credit issues and the charging of book debts
Acting for a bank funding the exit of a venture capital fund from a mobile telephone retailing group
Acting for a bank in relation to invoice discounting facilities including dealing with related security and with creditor arrangements
Acting for a private funder on a £10 million facility as part of a successful MBO and subsequent IPO
Acting for a bank on structured loan facilities totalling approximately £6 million to enable the redemption and buy-back out of capital by the bank’s customer of preference shares held by private equity shareholders
Acting for a bank in relation to the sale by one of its customers of one of the largest development sites in the southeast with a sale price for the property of £24 million, deferred until the fulfillment of particular conditions. The work involved advising on the bank’s security including a charge over the agreement and a guarantee from the buyer’s bank