Neel Sachdev

Kirkland & Ellis

In a grey corporate world, Neel Sachdev is the closest thing that debt finance has to a rock star. With regular clients such as Apax, Bain Capital, BC Partners, Centerbridge, Core Equity, Investindustrial, Lone Star and Warburg Pincus, his business-getting skills are legendary, while his strategic teamwork with Stephen Lucas has created a fearsome reputation for two reasons.

First, in deal-structuring, Kirkland’s muscle has reshaped the market in sponsor-driven finance. Second, aggressive and targeted hiring has made Kirkland the biggest City phenomenon of the past five years.

2019 saw Sachdev advising a consortium including Apax,Warburg Pincus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan on the $3.4bn (£2.6bn) take-private of satellite communications group Inmarsat; Bain Capital and Carlyle on the public takeover offer for OSRAM Licht AG; Lone Star on the amend and extend financing aspects of its €2.2bn (£1.88bn) debt of German building company Xella Group; and Thomas H Lee Partners on the financing of its acquisition of AutoStore from EQT.