Two deals on which Lovells advised have been short-listed for Deal of the Year in the Securitisation and Private Equity categories of the IFLR European Awards. The winners will be announced on 14 March.
Securitisation Deal of the Year
Lovells advised Terra Firma on the €5.416 billion multi-family commercial mortgage-backed securitisation of part of its residential housing portfolio, Deutsche Annington Immobilien. The securitisation vehicle, German Residential Asset Note Distributor PLC, is backed by assets valued at €8.1 billion. The deal, which completed on 3 August 2006, is the largest ever German commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) issue and Germany's largest real estate and private equity transaction. At the time, it was also the largest private equity deal in continental Europe.
The Anglo-German Lovells team was led by securitisation partner and head of Lovells' finance practice David Hudd, Mark Donald (leveraged finance), Stephan Geibel (tax structuring), Philipp Grzimek (corporate), Katlen Bloecker (finance) and Bernard Kuhn (real estate). Clifford Chance advised Barclays Capital and Citigroup, which arranged the securitisation, while White & Case advised security agent Deutsche Trustee Co Limited.
Private Equity Deal of the Year
Lovells advised Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (State of Hamburg) when a group of investors led by JC Flowers & Co LLC, the US-based private equity firm, won an auction to acquire German state-owned bank WestLB AG's 24.1% stake in HSH Nordbank AG, a Germany-based bank. The other shareholders of HSH - namely City of Hamburg, the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein and the Schleswig-Holstein savings banks' association - have a pre-emptive right to buy the stake at the same terms and conditions agreed by the investor group, within a month of receiving the notice of sale. HSH, which has €165m of assets under management, is preparing for an IPO in 2008 or 2009.
Hamburg-based partner Joerg Paura acted on the acquisition financing side of the HSH Nordbank deal. CMS Cameron McKenna advised the target, Weil Gotshal & Manges advised the bidder and Freshfields advised the seller.
Comment: The awards show the firm's market leading work across a broad range of practice areas.