Herbert Smith Freehills has strengthened its global debt capital markets practice with the hire of two partners. Louis de Longeaux joins the firm’s Paris office from Orrick where he has been a partner since 2007, and Amy Geddes joins in London where she was a managing associate at Linklaters.
Louis’ main areas of focus are debt and equity-linked capital markets, including EMTN programmes, bond issues and other private placements. He has represented numerous major French and international companies (including various major companies in the oil and gas sector) on a variety of finance debt capital markets transactions, and his arrival at the firm will expand our finance offering to both corporate and banking clients of the Paris office.
Amy joined Linklaters’ equity and debt capital markets team in 2006, and her main area of focus is advising on debt, equity-linked and hybrid capital securities issues. Amy has worked on numerous high profile transactions and has advised both corporate issuers and investment banks on transactions executed in the international capital markets.
Louis and Amy’s arrival will further enhance Herbert Smith Freehills’ global debt capital markets capability, following the 2011 partner hires of Andrew Roberts in London and Phillip Lee in Singapore from Linklaters and Allen & Overy respectively.
Malcolm Hitching, Head of Finance – UK, Europe, Middle East & Africa at Herbert Smith Freehills, comments:
“We are delighted to welcome both Louis and Amy to the team. Continuing constraints in the loan markets have led more of our corporate clients to use the mainstream debt capital markets as an important tool for raising funds, whilst most of our banking clients have significant debt capital markets operations. With these hires we are therefore responding to the needs of our global client base, as well as the markets in which they operate.
“Louis’ arrival represents a particular milestone for our Paris team, which has made considerable progress over the past few years. Paris is an important financial centre, serving as the focal point for domestic French financings as well as international investment grade and emerging market activity. The French debt capital markets are increasingly replacing traditional bank loans as the primary source of debt capital for major corporate borrowers, and we will now be able to offer an enhanced service to both our corporate and banking clients in the region.”
