Ropes & Gray Acts on a Hat-Trick of High Yield Offerings

Ropes & Gray today announced a hat-trick of high yield deals. The firm recently acted for issuers in three high yield note offerings in the space of a month.

• Acting for Telenet Finance III Luxembourg S.C.A. and Telenet Group Holding N.V. on the issuance of €300 million 6⅝% senior secured notes due 2021, the proceeds of which were used to fund a new loan under the Telenet senior credit facility.  Joint lead and book-running managers on the deal were Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, BNP Paribas, BofA Merrill Lynch, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Société Générale. The deal closed on 15 February 2011.
• Acting for UPCB III Finance Limited and UPC Holding B.V. on the issuance of US$1 billion 6⅝% senior secured notes due 2020, the proceeds of which were used to fund a new loan under the UPC senior credit facility. Sole physical bookrunner on the deal was BofA Merrill Lynch. Joint bookrunners were Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, and The Royal Bank of Scotland. The deal closed on the 16 February 2011.
• Acting for UPCB II Finance Limited and UPC Holding B.V. on the issuance of €750 million 6⅜% senior secured notes due 2020, the proceeds of which were used to fund a new loan under the UPC senior credit facility.  Joint bookrunners on the deal were Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital, Citi, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, ING, Morgan Stanley, and The Royal Bank of Scotland. The deal closed on 31 January 2011.

“These transactions are yet another indicator of a robust market for high yield note offerings in Europe,” said Jane Rogers, lead Ropes & Gray partner on the deals. High yield note issuance dominated the European leveraged finance market in 2010 and has continued to be strong in 2011. “We are extremely pleased to assist our clients as they continue to turn to the high yield market to execute their strategic objectives,” Rogers said.

Ropes & Gray in little over a year has built an integrated finance team that numbers nine partners and 18 associates.

Rogers led the Ropes & Gray team on all three deals with support from Robert Haak, Eric Issadore, and Michael Kazakevich.

Ropes & Gray, a global law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers and professionals, has been recognised as having one of the world’s leading finance practices. The opening of Ropes & Gray’s London office marked the firm’s fourth recent move into key geographic markets, following openings in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Chicago, which allows the firm to serve clients from bases in major finance centres and to provide global execution of transactions.