DLA Piper appointed for Dawnay Day administrators
DLA Piper appointed for Dawnay Day administrators" />DLA Piper has landed the key role in the restructuring of Dawnay Day, one of the most high-profile victims of the credit crunch.
Property and financial services ;conglomerate Dawnay Day is being forced to sell off its entire real estate empire, ;worth ;several hundred million pounds.
DLA Piper is acting for the administrator BDO Stoy Hayward, which was called in by Dawnay Day’s main lender Norwich Union.
The firm is using a global team of some 80 lawyers to work on the sale of more than 200 properties.
In Leeds restructuring partner Mark Jackson is heading a team that includes partners Colin Ashford and Richard Obank.
London-based insolvency partner Wendy Watson is handling Dawnay Day’s Indian investments.
A trio of smaller firms has been kept on to advise on the sale. Klimt & Co, which is run by the wife of one of Dawnay Day’s founders, Charles ;Russell ;and London-based Solomon Taylor & Shaw are working alongside DLA Piper, with the latter two handling property litigation.
DLA Piper is also working closely with the in-house legal team at Norwich Union.
Dawnay Day was built into a £1.3bn global empire by founders Guy Naggar and Peter Klimt, with interests in real estate, financial services and even film, but has seen the value of its investments plummet during the past year.
Dawnay Day’s collapse was triggered in July when it was forced to put up cash to fund an investment in F&C Asset Management.
Norwich Union brought in restructuring expert BDO to help recover its loans. BDO has now been appointed as receiver to Dawnay Day International, the group’s parent company.
Dawnay Day’s property empire is split into three portfolios ;– ;Starlight Investments, Insureprofit and Dawnay Day Properties – and receives annual rents of around £45m.
