Acquisition & Leveraged Finance

Our banking & finance lawyers have extensive experience in advising lenders and borrowers on the funding of a wide range of acquisitions including corporate acquisitions, business acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and buy-ins, restructurings and exits.

These acquisitions and the accompanying finance structures are often complex, involving sophisticated acquisition terms, cross border elements, inter-creditor and security sharing arrangements. Our experience in these areas enables us to quickly identify issues in the early stages of these transactions and provide effective commercial solutions to our clients.

On acquisition & levered finance transactions, our banking & finance lawyers draw on the expertise of a number of expert lawyers in other practice areas to offer our clients a bespoke service across all aspects of their transaction. In particular, we work closely with M&A lawyers from our Corporate team who carry out due diligence assessments of the targets as well as negotiate or review the related acquisition documents. We are also closely supported by expert lawyers from our Tax, Commercial, Real Estate and Employment teams who will be on hand to assess any risk or matters that lie within their respective fields of expertise.

Our banking & finance lawyers are well-regarded in the market for their innovative and creative approaches to acquisition & levered finance transactions. The Legal 500 ranked team regularly represents financial institutions, commercial banks, private equity firms, investors, venture capital funds and corporate borrowers.

Representative Acquisition & Leveraged Finance Work

Examples of our team’s acquisition & leveraged finance work include:

  • Advised on a US$140m bilateral on demand loan facility to a Delaware company in connection with the acquisition of shares in another Delaware company. The loan was supported by a corporate guarantee from the borrower’s BVI parent company and a charge on a deposit account.
  • Advised the Dubai branch of a well-known Indian bank on a bilateral term loan facility to two Mauritian special purpose companies in connection with the acquisition of assets and shares in Thai and Swedish target companies. The bank’s security covered the targets’ assets in England, the US, Sweden, Thailand, the Netherlands and Denmark.
  • Advised an international bank on a US$18m bilateral term loan facility advanced to a Spanish subsidiary of a major pharmaceutical group in connection with the acquisition of shares in three target pharmaceutical companies; two located in Spain and the other in Mexico.
  • Advised a family office in relation to a £37m loan facility from Deutsche Bank in connection with the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of a BVI company holding real estate in London.

Key contacts:

Photo of Phil Berry

Phil Berry

Partner Banking and Finance
Work 37 – 41 Bedford Row London WC1R 4JH Tel: +44 (0) 20 7611 2353

Biography

Phil joined Teacher Stern as a trainee in 1980 and is head of the Legal 500 ranked real estate finance team. He is an expert in real estate finance with heavyweight experience in acting for a spectrum of lenders and borrowers.

He is very well regarded by his clients for providing sound commercial advice as well as having the technical knowhow. Clients have commented that he is “business orientated and pragmatic”. Phil is very proactive in driving deals towards closing and identifying complex issues, which have the potential to delay or even break the deal, at an early stage and finding solutions to overcome them.

Phil is listed as a recommended lawyer in the Legal 500 2021 and 2024 rankings.

Representative Experience

Phil has:

An expert in property finance, Phil acts for banks and building societies on commercial property matters and both advises on, and drafts, security documentation.

  • £430 million acquisition of a mixture of offshore and onshore companies owning 180 Shell petrol stations
  • £101 million sale of a City building via JPUT
  • Refinancing of shops and offices in Kensington, London to the value of £97 million
  • £37 million acquisition of an industrial portfolio via four JPUTs
  • Purchase of 42 snooker clubs via JPUT, worth £30 million

Testimonials 

Legal 500 2024

‘Phil Berry and Claire Gibson both offer a wealth of knowledge in their field. Clients are central to the team’s work ethos, and they are undoubtedly people you want to have in your corner.

Legal 500

‘Phil Berry has years of experience, making him the type of lawyer you always want in your corner.’

Year qualified

Solicitor, 1980