Sidley Austin Brown & Wood has scooped a place on the panel of Paragon Group and has advised the specialist mortgage lender on its first securitisation to tap the US capital markets. The securitisation is the largest yet for Solihull-based Paragon, which has now raised £8.3bn in 41 transactions. A team led by partners Robert […]
Lovells has landed its first property job for Aviva, after being instructed to advise on the outsourcing of the insurance giant’s property portfolio. Although the City firm has previously completed work for Aviva (formerly known as CGNU), it has not been in the property arena. Other firms to have been involved in property work for […]
Low-value, high-volume work provides boost to London as Continental rates bite. By Brendan Malkin Shipping litigation has grown by 143 per cent in the last three years compared with the same period up to 2000, contradicting gloomy reports of ship litigation drying up. According to research by Jackson Parton, the firm with the largest increase […]
Denton Wilde Sapte has advised the government of Qatar on the world’s second Islamic bond and the Middle East’s first. The issue also saw Allen & Overy reinforce its credentials in this highly niche area. The magic cirle firm advised lead arranger HSBC Singapore, which it also advised on the world’s first Islamic bond issue, […]
With litigation work in decline, tough competition is forcing London firms to rethink their strategies. UK shipping firms in Greece are battling against a significant contraction in the volume of litigation work, traditionally the backbone for the Athens-based practices. Few believe that the decline is merely cyclical, and coupled with intense competition in the ship […]
Plans are well and truly afoot to give Northern Ireland’s PFI/PPP market a leg-up. Stuart Cairns gives the lowdown on the changing face of projects After an initial flurry of projects in the mid to late 1990s, the PFI/PPP market in Northern Ireland is perceived by many to have gone quiet. In February this year, […]
Insolvency reform in Northern Ireland is lagging behind the rest of the UK, says Leeanne Whaley The introduction of the relevant provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 (the act) on 15 September 2003 heralded major insolvency reform in England and Wales. Although the act also implements many changes to the competition regime, the new provisions […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has called in management consultancy McKinsey to advise on the development of the firm’s European finance practice. Head of finance Simon Hall said McKinsey was appointed to help “develop a long-term strategy”. Finance is the first practice to go under the microscope, but Hall said the pilot will produce a firmwide template. […]
Are CFAs holding the media to ransom? Peter Carter-Ruck and Partner’s Nigel Tait doesn’t think so. Nigel Tait should be a worried man. A partner at top libel firm Peter Carter-Ruck and Partners, he has been in the vanguard of taking on defamation actions against media organisations on a conditional fee basis, otherwise known as […]
Masons had triumphed in a beauty parade against Jones Day Gouldens to advise IP2IPO Group on its own initial public offering (IPO) last week. Masons, which is re-nowned more for its construction practice than its corporate finance capability, is the unlikely beneficiary of a renewed appetite for technology stocks in London. The offering comes in […]
Merricks is staggering the payment of staff wages to deal with its ongoing cash flow problems. The news comes as a six-fee-earner corporate team leaves the firm to join leading West End heavyweight Fladgate Fielder. In August, The Lawyer revealed that the predominatly claimant personal injury firm Merricks was suffering cash flow problems. (The Lawyer, […]
The US firm is challenging CDO topdog Ashursts – with help from Linklaters White & Case stakes its claim on the CDO sector” />White & Case may not have set the City alight in acquisition finance, but there’s one part of its London business that’s romping away: structured finance, and in particular the collateralised debt […]