Herbert Smith (Dina Albagli) advised Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) on its issue from its master trust Mound Financing, raising £2.26bn for the bank and an increase in trust property to £7.5bn. Shepherd + Wedderburn acted for HBOS on issues relating to Scottish law. Citigroup acted as sole arranger with Credit Suisse First Boston as joint book runners. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, represented by Allen & Overy, were co-managers for the Class-A notes.
Linklaters (Andrew Malcolm) acted for Lehman Brothers Asia, arranger of a $5bn (£2.97bn) retail secured note programme and the issue of $60.5m (£36m) equity linked notes for Pyxis Finance. Maples and Calder Asia advised Pyxis on Cayman Islands law.
Allen & Overy (Bimal Desai, Roger Wedderburn-Day) represented the lead arrangers on the $408.7m (£243.2m) Dubai 2003 bond. The lead arrangers were Emirates Bank International, HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, National Bank of Dubai and Standard Chartered Bank. This was the first sovereign bond deal for the Dubai government and the United Arab Emirates, which hope it will kick-start the local currency bond market. Clifford Chance advised the Dubai government.
Ashurst Morris Crisp (Jeremy Hill) acted for the Benfield Group, the global reinsurance intermediary, in its initial public offering at an offer price of 250p per share for a market capitalisation of £575m. Merrill Lynch International and Morgan Stanley, advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, acted as joint bookrunners for the global offer and joint financial advisers to Benfield. Merrill Lynch also acted as sponsor and broker.
DLA (Philip Butler, Elizabeth Walters) represented existing client Bank of Scotland on the placing of its ordinary equity stake on the initial public offering of Sondex and a restructured debt package worth £27m. Nabarro Nathanson advised Sondex.
SJ Berwin (David Ryland) acted for Matrix Securities in establishing the Matrix Alban Gate Limited Partnership, created to purchase the long leasehold tenure for Alban Gate for an initial net rent of £16m. Linklaters advised Alban Gate and individual limited partners were represented by different firms, including Herbert Smith, Maxwell Batley and Addleshaw Goddard.
