Lawyers in the London office of Sidley Austin LLP advised on two high yield bonds that closed in as many days in March 2011.
Stephen Roith, head of Sidley’s London capital markets group, acted for a group of banks led by Credit Agricole CIB, Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Scotland as underwriters for the €425 million 8.75% Senior Notes due 2018 issued by Obrascon Huarte Lain, S.A. (“OHL”), which closed on March 30. OHL is one of Spain’s leading construction and concession groups, present in twenty countries across four continents. This was OHL’s second high yield bond issue, following on from its €700 million debut issue in April 2010. In addition to Stephen Roith, the Sidley team acting on the transaction included counsel Vivian Root and associates Vishal Mawkin and Sabah Rahman.
Concurrently with that transaction, U.S. capital markets partner Bart Capeci represented Phones4u Finance plc on its £430 million issue of 9.5% senior secured notes, which provided most of the funding for Phones4u’s acquisition by BC Partners. The bond issue closed on March 31. Mr. Capeci was assisted by associates Laila Afridi and Andy Hagan.
Mr. Capeci said, “This transaction was an example of the new trend towards ‘straight to bond’ acquisition financings, where the bond proceeds are issued into escrow pending satisfaction of the acquisition closing conditions, giving certain funds from the bond and eliminating the need for a bridge financing facility.”
Mr. Roith commented, “These two transactions illustrate the diversity of the European high yield bond market and of our high yield practice. OHL was an English law governed, Reg. S only, unsecured transaction for a sub-investment grade Spanish corporate issuer, and shows the emergence of the high yield bond market as an alternative to bank financing for companies like this. Phones4u was a New York law, Rule 144A, secured acquisition financing using a new structure to cope with the tightening of the bridge finance market. The fact that we were able to close two such different transactions in as many days shows both the distance the European high yield market has come in recent months, and the strength and depth of Sidley’s high yield team.”
Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world’s premier full-service law firms, with more than 1600 lawyers practicing in 17 U.S. and international cities, including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Sidley is recognized for service and responsiveness. Sidley received the most first-tier national rankings of any U.S. law firm in the inaugural U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings for 2010. BTI, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only three firms to have been in the top ten of the BTI Client Service rankings every year since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and as number one in three of those years.
