Benoit Lavigne

Experience (including prior to re-joining Ropes & Gray):

Creditor Representations

• Acting for All Seas Capital in connection with their hybrid minority equity investment in The Nurture Landscapes Group.
• Advised Capital One, N.A. and HPS Investment Partners on a refinancing and dividend recapitalisation in their first European financing booked in their ULTra joint venture arrangement.
• Advising a credit fund in respect of £94 million senior credit facilities.
• Advising two credit funds in respect of the equivalent of US$1 billion unitranche credit facilities.
• Advising a credit fund in respect of US$75 million senior secured credit facilities.
• Advising KKR Credit Advisors on US$203 million and £66 million incremental credit facilities.
• Advising the initial purchasers in the whole business securitization of the franchise assets of Neighborly Company.
• Advising the initial purchasers in the securitization of music catalogue assets of Hi-Fi Music which was bought by affiliates of KKR & Co.
• Advised Barings with respect to aggregate facilities of €200 million in connection with a dividend recap and refinancing of existing facilities for a German portfolio company of a European private equity sponsor.
• Advised Ares Management as sole term and RCF lender in respect of Searchlight Capital Partners’ acquisition of Global Risk Partners, a leading independent insurance intermediary.
• Advised Bridgepoint Credit (formerly EQT Credit), as sole term lender in respect of Oakley Capital’s acquisition of Seagull and Videotel. The drawn committed financing of EQT Credit (through its Direct Lending investment strategy) at first financial close was the USD equivalent of US$130 million.
• Acted for a leading European private credit fund in connection with the syndication of a portion of its senior term facilities on a 1.5 lien basis pursuant to unique intercreditor arrangements.
• Advised Pemberton Asset Management, the diversified asset manager backed by one of Europe’s largest insurers, Legal & General Group Plc, and New York-based private equity firm GoldPoint Partners as second lien lenders in connection with a cross-border first and second lien refinancing. The second lien financing is made up of a fully allocated US$155 million second-lien tranche split between dollar and sterling tranches.
• Advised Vector Capital in its agreement to provide a US$100 million second lien term loan to support Permira Funds’ acquisition of Synamedia, a leading video software solutions provider, from Cisco.
• Advising JP Morgan with respect to various derivative loan facilities, including refinancings thereof.
• Acting for the arrangers and underwriters on the €3bn (equivalent) bond and €1.1 billion revolving credit facilities put in place in connection with the combination of the Lindorff Group and Intrum Justitia.
• Acting for Deutsche Bank and Nordea in connection with the €1.45 billion financing of Nordic Capital’s acquisition of a majority stake in Norway based Lindorff, one of Europe’s leading providers of debt related administrative services.
• Acting for, among others, Morgan Stanley, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and ING Bank N.V. on a US$1 billion covenant lite term loan, a €250 million senior notes issuance and €125 million in other bank financing in connection with the acquisition by Altice VII S.à r.l. of Groupe Outremer Telecom S.A. and Oni SGPS S.A. and the fold-in of certain businesses owned by Altice VII S.à r.l. into an existing restricted financing group.
• Acting for, among others, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, ING and JP Morgan on the US$1.1 billion financing raised by Altice VII S.à r.l. in connection with the take-private and refinancing of HOT-Telecommunications Systems Ltd., an Israeli telecommunications company.
• Representing Deutsche Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland and others as global coordinators, bookrunning managers and initial purchasers in connection with the refinancing of existing facilities made available to the Viridian group. The transaction involved a restructuring of a junior debt piece together with the refinancing of existing senior facilities in excess of €1 billion.
• Acting for Credit Suisse as sole arranger, bookrunner, agent and security agent in connection with the £150 million refinancing for The O2 Arena.
• Acting for JP Morgan, as global coordinator, on a transaction involving the reorganisation of the corporate structure of a French borrower and its subsidiaries. The financing involved a €900 million bridge to securitization take-out borrowing base facility, a €350 million senior term and revolving credit facility and a €200 million bond.

Event Driven Financings

• Advised a hedge fund in connection with various receivables discounting facilities to provide liquidity facilities.
• Advised one of the world's largest private credit institutions on its European financings ranging from US$200 million (equivalent) to over US$1 billion (equivalent) in committed financings.
• Advising a US based credit fund on the European aspects of unitranche financings.
• Advising a global opportunities fund with respect to a holdco facility made available to a borrower to refinance its balance sheet.
• Advised an investment bank on its English law receivables financings with lending limits of £415 million and £1 billion respectively.
• Advising Macquarie Capital in connection with a number of matters including financing a sale and leaseback transaction for a London based private equity sponsor; representing them on acquisitions; and advising on 1.5x lien incremental facilities for refinancing purposes.
• Acting for 2L lenders in connection with a Covid-19 liquidity management exercise which included the conversion of 2L interest in the form of synthetic PIK interest.
• Acting for the ad hoc committee of Senior Unsecured Noteholders of Towergate Insurance in connection with its financial restructuring.
• Acting for Anchorage Capital in connection with the restructuring and loan to own by Triton of the Stabilus group and the subsequent refinancing of the group’s facilities.
• Acting for the mandated lead arrangers on a €1.4 billion corporate acquisition financing in the context of a takeover defence mechanism.
• Acting for the steering committee of mezzanine lenders in connection with the restructuring of the circa €1 billion debt facilities of the Orion Cable GmbH group of companies.

Borrower Representations

• Acting for an affiliate of a corporate borrower on various private margin loan facilities.
• Acting for Stellex Capital Management in connection with its platform investment in and acquisition of each of Bryden Capital Limited and MSS Products Holdings Limited.
• Acting for a large Canadian infrastructure fund in connection with its European acquisition and fund financings.
• Acting for Circular Resources S.a r.l. in connection with term and revolving facilities made available for its acquisition of DSD - Duales Systems Holding GmbH & Co. KG.
• Acting for a corporate borrower with respect to various back-leverage facilities ranging from US$1 billion to US$5 billion equivalent in principal committed amount.
• Acting for Samsonite International S.A., the world’s largest travel luggage company, on the offering of €350 million 3.5% Senior Notes due 2026 by Samsonite Finco S.a r.l.
• Acting for Altice NV on its cross-border equity and debt financing for the acquisition of Cablevision, the leading cable system operator in the New York metropolitan area. The US$10.6 billion debt financing package included a US$3.8 billion covenant lite term loan, US$2 billion revolving facility and three tranches of high yield notes: the offering of US$1.8 billion 101/8% Senior Notes due 2023, US$2 billion 107/8% Senior Notes due 2025 and US$1 billion 65/8% Senior Guaranteed Notes due 2025 and Altice NV also raised €1.6 billion via an equity placement through the accelerated book build method.
• Acting for Altice Financing S.A. in connection with the offering of US$2.75 billion 7½% Senior Secured Notes due 2026 to refinance certain existing Senior Secured Notes and Term Loan Facilities.
• Acting for Numericable-SFR in relation to its US$5.1 billion high yield bond offering and refinancing of existing debt.
• Acting for Altice S.A. on the financing for the acquisition by Altice of Suddenlink, the seventh largest cable system operator in the United States.
• Acting for Altice and Numericable Group in their jumbo US$21.9 billion cross-border bank and bond financing for the acquisition of French telecoms operator SFR.
• Acting for Altice S.A. on the financing for the acquisition by Altice of PT Portugal SGPS, S.A. and certain other entities that make up the Portugal Telecom Group, a leading provider of integrated telecommunication services to residential and corporate customers in Portugal from Oi S.A.
• Acting for Thomas Cook Group Plc on its £1.6 billion refinancing. Primary role involved advising Thomas Cook as lead counsel on both the €525 million underwritten bridge loan and high yield bond placement of the same size and collaborating with another law firm on the accompanying £425 million equity rights issue and £691 million bank re-financing.
• Acting for a subsidiary of the investment arm of a sovereign entity in connection with a US$5 billion revolving margin facility.
• Acting for Qatar Holding in connection with its £1.5 billion acquisition of Harrods.