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SJ Berwin LLP Advises on First Finance Transaction for Bank of Ireland

Tuesday 20th December 2005

SJ Berwin LLP has completed its first finance transaction for Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking advising its Media Finance Team on a £10 million acquisition facility to Engine Group (formerly WCRS Group), one of the UK's leading independent communications groups, whose clients include Abbey, BMW and Prudential.

The facility was used to fund two acquisitions in the PR and public affairs sector.

The SJ Berwin team was led by banking partner Jeremy Cross and assisted by banking assistants Dugald Marr and David Russell and corporate assistant Julie Galligan.

Jeremy Cross commented

"We are extremely pleased to have advised on our first transaction for the Bank of Ireland. The transaction was complex, relative to its monetary value, but we believe the end result was a good one for all concerned".

Tony Tozzi, Director, Media Finance at Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking stated

"This deal represents our first in the marketing services sector and one of the more complex we have been involved with to date.  The support provided by SJ Berwin throughout the process was valuable and appreciated.

"We are delighted with the outcome of this transaction because of the intricacies involved in completing not just one, but two acquisitions and the final piece of the formal buy-out from Havas."

Engine Group was advised by Osborne Clarke led by corporate partner Adrian Brown and assisted by banking assistant Phil Coffer.


Notes:
  • SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 450 lawyers across its offices in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.
  • SJ Berwin was created and thrives as a leading-edge legal services business, focusing on the European and international marketplace. Our clients are sophisticated buyers of legal services, principally entrepreneurial companies and financial institutions, whom we advise on a comprehensive range of services including Corporate Finance, Commercial, Real Estate, Banking, Reconstruction and Insolvency, Financial Services, Litigation, Employment & Pensions, EU & Competition & Tax.
  • Our approach has resulted in the firm winning a number of recent awards including "UK Firm of the Year 2005" at the Legal Week Awards, "Law Firm of the Year 2005" at the EVCA/Real Deals Awards, European Law Firm of the Year" (fund formation) by subscribers to PrivateEquityOnline and Private Equity International, "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2004" at the European Venture Capital journal awards 2004, "Law Firm of the Year" 2004 at the EVCA/Real Deals European Private Equity Awards, "LBO Firm of the Year" 2004 at the Finance and Law Awards in Paris, "Real Estate Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards 2004, "World’s Leading Firm for Private Funds Expertise" in The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers 2003/4.
  • The core Banking Department grew by 25% in 2004 and a similar growth pattern is forecast for 05/06. This makes the department the fastest growing in the firm (both by headcount and revenue growth). With the arrival of Brian Carne the department will comprise 10 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 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.
  • On June 1 2005 SJ Berwin became SJ Berwin LLP, a limited liability partnership.
  • SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.
Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking: Media Finance Team
  • The Media Finance team was established at the beginning of February 2005.  The team is led by Bill Greaves and supported by Mark Birkenshaw, Simon Bumfrey, Geoff Marchant and Tony Tozzi.  They represent the most experienced team of Media corporate bankers in the UK.
  • Their remit is the provision of debt facilities: including working capital, contract discounting, asset finance (especially Intellectual Property Assets) and term lending (including both corporate and leveraged transactions) to the whole of the Media Sector, which includes Publishing, Marketing Services, Radio, TV broadcasting and production, Music, Games publishing and ancillary services, both in the UK, Europe and the US.  The team also specialises in providing finance for structured tax products in the film finance market.
 
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