Clifford Chance
We have a truly global Banks sector group and are involved in many of the market's ground-breaking deals. The group consists of a multi-disciplinary team of lawyers drawn from our Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate, Tax, Litigation and Real Estate practices who have a large breadth and depth of experience working with Banks globally.
Our expert knowledge of the sector and its issues enables our lawyers to provide results driven commercial advice to banks on some of their most complex transactions and to help them address some of their most challenging business issues.
Bank regulation
We are working alongside the world's leading financial institutions to meet the challenges of a dramatically changing regulatory landscape. Our global network of regulatory and capital markets lawyers brings commercially-focused expertise in navigating Basel III, EU, UK, US and other national legislation and wider regulatory issues. We also play a significant role in working with regulatory bodies to shape current and proposed frameworks.
M&A in the banking industry
The ongoing market turmoil continues to drive M&A activity across the sector as institutions seek to reshape their operating models or capitalise on new opportunities. We have an excellent reputation for advising a significant number of banks on complex strategic disposals or acquisitions. We have built strong relationships with key regulators and can mobilise unrivalled resources in order to deliver the full range of the firm's knowledge and experience to help clients complete successful transactions.
Banking products
Changes in market sentiment and the needs of clients has led many banks to refine and update the product set they offer. Our highly experienced Banking & Finance and Capital Markets practices provide advice in relation to the full spectrum of financial products including syndicated lending and leveraged and acquisition finance, asset finance, derivative products, project finance, financial regulatory, insolvency & restructuring, debt capital markets, equity capital markets, structured debt and structured finance.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
We have many years of experience acting for major financial institutions in a wide variety of disputes and regulatory problems across the globe. Many of our lawyers have been seconded to financial institutions and have first-hand, in-house experience of the problems confronting both your in-house lawyers and your business units. Our banking litigation lawyers have a deep understanding of the range of complex financial products and the markets in which our financial institution clients operate.
Client experience
- HSBC Group on its global bancassurance strategy and on divestments of its general insurance and life businesses in multiple jurisdictions
- UBS on its issue of US$1.5 billion Tier 2 Contingent Capital Notes due 2023
- Banco do Brasil on its issue of US$1 billion 9.25%. Perpetual Non-cumulative Junior Subordinated Securities
- BNP Paribas and Citigroup on Rwanda's first sovereign debt issuance – a milestone in the country’s economic recovery since the 1994 genocide
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CIMB and HSBC as joint lead managers on Axiata Group Berhad's RMB1 billion sukuk issuance – one of the largest RMB-denominated sukuk issuances to be issued in the dim sum bond market
- Sberbank of Russia on the update of its US$30 billion EMTN programme – one of the largest ever emerging markets USD subordinated transactions
- Deutsche Bank on the London IPO of Al Noor Hospitals Group – the largest private healthcare provider in Abu Dhabi.
- The arrangers on the £3.6 billion refinancing of Arqiva – the first ever transaction to tap both the high yield markets and securitisation markets simultaneously
- Deutsche Bank on the restructuring and sale of global generic pharmaceutical company Actavis to Watson Pharmaceuticals for up to €4.5 billion
- The mandated lead arrangers on the €1.97 billion cov-lite senior financing supporting the acquisition by BC Partners of the Springer group, the leading international publishing business headquartered in Germany
- The arranging banks on the refinancing of the existing indebtedness of Arqiva, the UK-based broadcast infrastructure and communications services provider. The innovative transaction raised £2.25 billion of committed bank facilities (including senior term loans, together with capital expenditure, working capital and liquidity facilities), £750 million of bonds under a whole business securitisation programme and £600 million of high yield notes – the largest single sterling issuance in the high yield market
- A syndicate of lenders, comprising more than 90 banks, in connection with the revolving credit facilities totalling US$12.47 billion for Glencore International and Glencore Singapore, part of the Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining group
- The senior debt underwriters Bayern LB, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, IKB, JPMorgan, LBBW, Raiffeisen Bank International and Unicredit, each acting as a physical bookrunners and Commerzbank acting as a non-physical bookrunner for the €830 million senior facility financing of Advent International's €1.5 billion bid for German books-to-perfume retailer Douglas Holding. This was a German public to private
- The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (as co-ordinator) and twelve other mandated lead arrangers in relation to a £1.4bn post-IPO facility for Royal Mail.
