News & Events | News

Thursday 7th December 2006

Law firm SJ Berwin LLP has advised on the completion of the sale of London City Airport.  The vendor, Airport Management & Investment Limited, an entity owned by Mr Dermot Desmond, has entered into a conditional agreement to sell 100% of the equity of the business that owns and operates the airport to a consortium of AIG Financial Products Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of American International Group Inc. and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), an infrastructure joint venture between Credit Suisse and GE Infrastructure.  The agreement is subject to approval from the European Commission.

Irish law firm William Fry led the corporate side of the deal advising London City Airport, led by banking partner Neville O’Byrne and corporate partners Ken Casey and Alvin Price, assisted by David Kitterick and Eoin Caulfield on corporate issues, and EU and Competition partner John Handoll advised on competition issues.

SJ Berwin advised on the UK property, corporate and tax aspects of the deal with William Boss, real estate partner, leading the team, assisted by associate Katheryn Walters on real estate and Duncan Field, partner, on planning; partner Peter Anderson advising on UK corporate issues and associate Elly Farmer on tax.  AIG-FP and GIP were advised by Richard Youle, corporate partner at Linklaters.

For further information please contact:

William Boss on + 44 (+44 (0)20 7111 2832, email william.boss@sjberwin.com  or Karen Roberts on + 44 (+44 (0)20 7111 2578, email karen.roberts@sjberwin.com 

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
  
  
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the 2005 Legal Week Awards.  The award recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
  
  
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 21 are partners in London and 50 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation and Real Estate Funds.  In addition, there are 3 dedicated real estate tax partners in London and 1 dedicated real estate partner in Paris.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and with the international offices.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
  
  
• The Real Estate Team is Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.
  
  
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.
  
  
• CITY AIRPORT
  The Airport is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, East London, less than 3 miles from Canary Wharf and 6 Miles from the City.  It offers easy access to 27 destinations within the UK and across Europe and management believes will handle 2.4 million passengers in 2006, representing a 20% growth rate over last year.