Finance Team of the Year

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DEWEY & LEBOEUF - Amanda Jennings; Bruce Johnston

Touted as the largest leveraged buyout (LBO) in Europe in the last three years, Spartan Capital’s €4.4bn LBO of Polkomtel saw Dewey & LeBoeuf play an integral part in the deal acting for Spartan on all of the financing for the acquisition, including a €3.6bn debt financing package and equity provided by the investor.

 

 

The winning team for this award will operate at the cutting edge of the finance industry. We will consider specific examples of a deal from a wide range of areas including bank lending, acquisition finance, project finance and debt capital markets. The judges will give particular credence to the views of the wider finance community in deciding the winning team.

 

Amanda Jennings; Bruce Johnston Touted as the largest leveraged buyout (LBO) in Europe in the last three years, Spartan Capital’s €4.4bn LBO of Polkomtel saw Dewey & LeBoeuf play an integral part in the deal acting for Spartan on all of the financing for the acquisition, including a €3.6bn debt financing package and equity provided by the investor.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

ASHURST
Jane Fissenden; Nigel Ward

Jane Fissenden; Nigel Ward Ashurst’s impressive fi nance team took lead role advising a consortium, which included Allianz Capital Partners and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, on the direct and indirect fi nancing of the £1.9bn, 24.1% interest in the Gassled joint venture from Norway’s Statoil Petroleum.

HERBERT SMITH
Matthew Job; Nadim Khan

Herbert Smith acted for mandated lead arrangers Citibank, Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai and Dubai Islamic Bank on the $800m Salik toll road receivables financing, dedicating a stellar team of partners from both London and Dubai. The innovative structure of the deal allowed the Dubai government to borrow the money amid onerous market conditions.

LATHAM & WATKINS
Christopher Kandel

Taking a prominent role on the leveraged buyout of Polkomtel by Spartan Capital, Latham & Watkins stepped in to represent global co-ordinators Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole and a consortium of other lead arrangers on the €3.6bn debt fi nancing package for the deal.

LINKLATERS
Brian Gray; Alexander Naidenov

Linklaters dedicated a mammoth team of lawyers from 11 offices to advise on the financing for the purchase of Evonik’s carbon black business by private equity houses Rhone and Triton. The fi rm advised the arrangers and the underwriters on the fi nancing, which included €355m senior secured notes.

SIMMONS & SIMMONS
Philip Abbott

This finance heavy hitter acted for BlueCrest Capital Management on the acquisition by its partners of Man Group’s 25.5% stake in the BlueCrest group for $633m. The Simmons & Simmons team also advised on the simultaneous acquisition of retired co-founder Bill Reeves’ remaining interests in the BlueCrest group.

WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES
Jacky Kelly

This standout US firm worked to create a new funding structure for client Zenith Provecta Group to help fund its future growth and development. The innovative and never-before-used funding structure includes an asset-backed commercial paper loan facility and a vehicle sale and purchase facility.

WHITE & CASE
Stuart Matty

Another strong year for the finance team at White & Case saw the firm act for the Republic of Namibia on its debut $500m rule 144A international bond issue. Because of the volatile and diffi cult market conditions, this issue is of particular note given the tight time scale.