Ropes & Gray has been named Finance Team of the Year at The Lawyer 2021 Awards, in recognition of the advice it provided Liberty Global, Virgin Media and O2 on the £5.7 billion-equivalent, bond and loan secured financing in connection with the previously announced joint venture combination of O2 and Virgin Media by Liberty Global and Telefonica.
As one of the largest and most significant deals of 2020, Liberty Global’s 50-50 joint venture agreement with Telefonica in connection with a merger of its UK operations O2 with Virgin Media has created the UK’s leading fixed-mobile provider and a company with a value of more than £30 billion.
In addition to recognition in The Lawyer Awards, this has also been recognised by Debtwire in their league table rankings as one of the top 10 largest deals in Western Europe of 2020. The deal demonstrates Ropes & Gray’s core strength in the leveraged and acquisition finance space, and the firm’s strong relationship and reputation with leading global corporate sponsors.
The Ropes & Gray team which advised on the loan financing aspects of the deal was led by finance partner Alex Robb, with finance associates Jacob Bennett and Hoey Lee, based in London.
The team which advised on the bond side of the deal was led by finance partner Rob Haak, with finance associates Greig Lamont, Clara Melly, Shabdita Gupta and Ashish Alexander – again, all based in London.
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