We regularly advise non-U.S. companies on a wide range of investment grade, high-yield and bridge and other debt financings, including many offerings by first-time issuers and some of the most complex or novel transactions. For example, we recently advised British American Tobacco and Bacardi Limited on their debut bond offerings in the U.S. We also represented BAE Systems, Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever on their recent U.S. bond offerings. Since January 1, 2008, we have completed 165 bond financings for non-U.S. issuers, generating total proceeds of over $257 billion.
The partners in Cravath’s London office are widely recognized for their bond financing expertise and regularly receive individual honors in that regard. The 2011 edition of Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business quote sources as having acknowledged the Firm’s “high-class banking and finance expertise and concentrated excellence in both debt and equity capital markets.” The 2011 edition of the IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms reports, “Cravath has one of the pre-eminent capital market practices in the market, advising issuers and underwriters in both U.S. and international markets on a spectrum of offerings, which include IPOs, high-yield bond offerings, equity offerings and investment-grade bond offerings.”
The Firm has broad experience in high-yield bond offerings. The Firm handled many of the initial high-yield bond financings in Europe in the mid- to late-1990s, and then helped devise the structural enhancements on the Brake Bros. high-yield bond offering in 2002 and 2003 that were demanded at that time by high-yield investors. More recently, we have helped introduce other innovations, such as the standard intercreditor provisions used in Europe, loan options in lieu of bond financings, “all-bond” structures and the first “toggle notes” used in Europe. We have handled many other significant transactions, such as the first large buyouts in France and Italy (Rexel and Seat), the first buyouts in Europe for Lindsay Goldberg and Ripplewood and the roll-up of the German cable operators. We have also been involved in a number of other novel PIK high-yield bond offerings and loan facilities, such as those by Avio, Kabel Deutschland, Lafarge and Prysmian.
As the high-yield market has reopened in 2009 following the financial crisis, the Firm has been involved in many of the key transactions, including Sappi’s debut high-yield bond offering. We also represented the initial purchasers in connection with the senior secured high-yield bond offering by CEVA Group Plc, one of the world’s largest integrated logistics companies. The London office also handled benchmark senior secured bond financings for Smurfit Kappa and Kerling and the innovative bond offering and concurrent rights and convertible offerings by Petroplus, as well as Infinis’ bond offering (the first dividend recap after the financial crisis). We structured on behalf of Akerys the first out-of-court restructuring of high-yield bonds issued by a European company, and advised Yell plc in connection with its refinancing. In 2010, we handled high-yield bond deals for BAA, CEVA Group, Cirsa, Countrywide, Hapag Lloyd, Ineos, ONO, Reynolds Group, Rhodia and Towergate, among others. We also advised on the two high-yield bridge and bond financings for leveraged buyouts in Europe in 2010, representing Lion Capital on its acquisition of Picard Surgelés in France and the initial purchasers on CVC’s acquisition of Sunrise Communications in Switzerland. We have advised on several other leveraged buyouts, including for or on behalf of Advent International, EQT, Nordic Capital, Oaktree and Permira. We have handled the first such PIK offerings in Europe post-crisis (for Picard Surgelés and Sunrise Communications). We also recently have structured concurrent tender offers and bond issuances for Grohe, ONO, Rhodia and others.
To date in 2011, we have advised on, among others, the first “new money” bond offering in Europe (for Labco), the first CCC rated bond offering in Europe (for ONO), the first large all pound sterling bond offering in Europe (for Towergate), the first floating rate note issuance post-crisis (for Grohe), the largest global bond offering (for Reynolds Group), the first emerging market issuance (for Foodcorp of South Africa), the first new-money issuance in Germany (for Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG), the first all-sterling CCC rated bond offering (for Gala Coral), escrowed bond deals (for CMA CGM and Styrolution), LBO bridge bond financing for GEO, follow-on offerings (for Sappi and CGG Veritas), two “orphanco” pass-through deals (for PagesJaunes and Xella) and the largest high-yield offering in 2011 and post-crisis (Kabel BW). We also have advised on high-yield bridge and bond financing for the LBOs of Securitas and ComHem.