News | Finance

Wednesday 12th April 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP has advised Rowan, the UK property company on the purchase of Euro 150 million of properties in Germany.  The deal, via a limited partnership was funded by GMAC.

The SJ Berwin team was led by John Eldridge, real estate partner, Nathan Briner, banking partner and Teresa Tam, banking associate, with David Fitzgerald, associate advising on corporate issues, in London, with Michael Kreft and Sebastian Gronstedt advising in Germany.  Freshfields advised GMAC.

John Eldridge commented, “We are increasingly seeing our clients wish to buy in Continental Europe and this deal is a further example of our ability to perform cross border transactions.”

• 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 on 30 November.  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 22 are partners (3 of which are tax partners), and 50 assistants, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate.  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 23% of the firm's total revenue.
• The core Banking Department grew by 27% in 2005, an increase of 63% over the past three years. The department comprises 11 partners and over 30 fee earners. Key bank clients include The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Barclays Bank plc, Bank of Ireland, Bank of Scotland, Landsbanki Islands h.f., and Standard Chartered Bank. The department works closely with other departments within the firm, in particular the Financial Services Group on regulatory and derivatives work, the property finance group in the Real Estate Division and the media finance group. It advises a wide range of banks and other financial institutions, corporates and revenue capitalists. The growth of the finance practice in London is reflected in recent significant expansion in our offices in Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid, whose practices include both domestic and crossborder financings.