Rob Haak is a partner in Ropes & Gray’s finance group in London. He focuses his practice on corporate and financing transactions, specialising in high yield debt offerings. 

Rob regularly acts for companies, private capital providers, investment banks and underwriters in a range of public and private securities and financing transactions.

Experience

  • Advised Virgin Media and O2 on a £5.7 billion-equivalent, loan and bond senior secured financing package in connection with their proposed £31.4 billion joint venture combination 
  • Advised UPC Holding on the US$3.6 billion-equivalent loan financing arrangements for its proposed public to private acquisition of Swiss telecoms group Sunrise Communications Group pursuant to an offer which represents a total enterprise value of 6.8 billion Swiss francs
  • Advised VTR on all financing aspects in relation to its senior and senior secured notes issuance for an aggregate amount of US$1.50 million 
  • Advised Liberty Latin America on the bank/bond financing package for its $1.95 billion acquisition of AT&T’s operations in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
  • Advised VodafoneZiggo on various transactions, including:
    • their first ever issuance of vendor financing notes and related financing arrangements
    • the offering and issuance of (i) $500 million 5.125% Senior Notes due 2030 and (ii) €900 million 3.375% Senior Notes due 2030
  • Advised Cable & Wireless Communications in connection with its issuance of $150 million of senior secured notes due 2027 and $220 million of senior notes due 2027 each issued as additional notes
  • Advised Mirae Asset Daewoo with its sole arrangement and purchase of €230 million of senior secured notes due 2022 in a private placement transaction
  • Advised Cable & Wireless Communications and its subsidiaries in connec­tion with Sable International Finance Limited’s issuance of US$400 million of senior secured notes due 2027, adding secured bonds to the Cable & Wireless capital structure, and the issuance of US$300 million senior notes due 2027, issued as additional notes to the existing US$700 million senior notes originally issued in August 2017
  • Advising Liberty Global and Virgin Media Investment Holdings Limited in connection with the issuance of £40 million 5.250% senior secured notes due 2029. 
  • The private investors investing in:
    • holdco PIK Notes in the Atento group
    • the private exchange of Holdco PIK Notes in the Unilabs group
    • secured mezzanine debt in connection with financing and structuring the acquisition of Swedish security group, Securitas Direct AB, by Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman
  • Acting for Cable & Wireless Communications plc in connection with  a new Term Loan B for the purposes of refinancing existing debt 
  • Acting for Virgin Media Inc. on the first ever issuance of receivables financing notes and related financing arrangements
  • Acting for Liberty Global plc in connection with the financing arrangements for its acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications plc, with a deal value of approximately £3.5 billion
  • Acting for purchasers of private high yield notes issued by a member of the Peermont Group, a South African leisure business, in connection with its financial restructuring
  • Acting for Liberty Global plc in connection with the bank and bond financing for its takeover offer to acquire Dutch listed cable company Ziggo N.V., with a deal value of approximately €10 billion
  • Acting for Virgin Media Inc. in connection with a US$1.5 billion (equivalent) high yield financing
  • Acting for VTR Finance B.V. and its Chilean operating subsidiaries in connection with a US$1.4 billion high yield financing
  • Acting for Liberty Global plc in connection with the financing for its US$23.3 billion acquisition of Virgin Media Inc.
  • Acting for Unitymedia KabelBW GmbH and its subsidiaries in connection with multiple high yield bond issuances and various tender and exchange offers
  • Acting for Goldman Sachs European Special Situations Group and TPG Special Situations Partners partners in connection with their joint acquisition of the Lundy Portfolio from Lloyds Banking Group
  • Acting for UPC Holding B.V. and its subsidiaries in connection with multiple high yield bond issuances including through special purpose vehicles, with the offering proceeds applied to fund term loans under credit facilities
  • Acting for Telenet NV and its subsidiaries in connection with multiple high yield bond issuances by special purpose vehicles, with the offering proceeds applied to fund term loans under Telenet’s senior secured credit facilities
  • Acting for Liberty Global plc in connection with the financing aspects of the business combination of its German cable businesses, Unitymedia and KabelBW, including an 2.16 billion (equivalent) exchange offer by Unitymedia Hessen GmbH & Co. KG, Unitymedia NRW GmbH and Unitymedia GmbH for certain existing notes issued by Kabel BW GmbH and UPC Germany HoldCo 1 GmbH
  • Acting for Altice Financing S.A. and Altice Finco S.A. in connection with a tap issuance of their existing US$450 million 7⅞% senior secured notes due 2019, 200 million 8% senior secured notes due 2019 and US$400 million 9⅞% senior notes due 2020 in connection with Altice’s take-private and refinancing of HOT-Telecommunications Systems Ltd., an Israeli telecommunications company
  • Acting for Liberty Global plc in connection with the financing for its approximate 3.16 billion acquisition of Germany's third-largest cable TV operator, Kabel BW Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, from Swedish private equity group EQT Partners AB
  • Acting for the mezzanine lenders providing 395 million of secured mezzanine debt in connection with financing and structuring the acquisition of Swedish security group, Securitas Direct AB, by Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman
  • Acting for Bain Capital Credit and GoldenTree Asset Management as Euro Note Purchasers in connection with the purchase of 110 million principal amount of Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes of Almatis Holdings 9 B.V.

Areas of Practice

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    Ropes & Gray International LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in Delaware, United States of America and is a recognised body regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (with registered number 521000).