Lloyd Robertson-Jones

Kirkland & Ellis is advising funds managed by Blackstone Capital Partners (Blackstone) on the definitive agreement with EQT VII fund (“EQT Private Equity”) and KHF to acquire a majority stake in VFS Global. EQT Private Equity will remain indirectly invested in VFS Global with a minority position alongside Blackstone. Blackstone, as majority shareholder, and KHF, as minority shareholder, will be co-investors in VFS Global following the closing of the transaction. VFS Global is the global market leader in visa outsourcing services, headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland and Dubai, UAE. Founded by its current CEO, Zubin Karkaria in 2001, the Company pioneered the professionalization of the visa market. It is now the largest provider of visa outsourcing and technology services to governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. Read Blackstone press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Aprajita Dhundia, David Higgins and Francesca Harris and associates Ryan Kabat and Andrea Jekkels and debt finance partners Stephen Lucas, Kirsteen Nicol and Lloyd Jones and associate Adebayo Lanlokun.

Oct 7

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis is advising Starwood Capital Group (Starwood Capital), a leading global private investment firm focused on real estate, on its strategic investment in Echelon Data Centres (Echelon), one of the leading data centre developers in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The transaction will see Starwood Capital commit approximately $850 million through Starwood Opportunity Fund XII and Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, Inc, becoming a 50% shareholder in Echelon and providing material capital for its continued growth. The investment values Echelon at approximately €2.5 billion enterprise value. Read Starwood Capital’s press release The Kirkland team is led by corporate partners Dipak Bhundia, Matthew Elliott, Andrew McAlpine and Emma Shelston and associates Jelani Okoruwa, Ben Zelouf and Shaun Boyle; debt finance partners Lloyd Robertson-Jones, Daniel Borg and James Collins and associates Benjamin Lewis and Oliver Clayson; tax partners Katherine Durkacz and Ed Moberly and associates Grace Nielsen and Alexandria Solomou; investment funds partner Paul Sampson; and real estate partner Jonathan Schechter.

Feb 20

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Finastra, a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company, in connection with the refinancing of its existing credit facilities. The transaction resulted in the largest ever private credit deal in the United States, including a $4.82 billion senior secured unitranche term loan facility and a $500 million senior secured multicurrency revolving credit facility and involved more than twenty lenders and borrowers in multiple jurisdictions. Finastra is one of the world’s largest financial services software companies with more than 9,000 customers, including 90 of the top 100 banks globally, across more than 130 countries. Vista is a U.S.-based investment firm with more than $96 billion in assets under management. The firm focuses on investing in software, data and technology-enabled organizations. The Kirkland & Ellis finance team included partners Sonali Jindal, Austin Glassman, Tim Hughes, Lloyd Robertson-Jones, Sarah Goodwin, Erik Hepler and associates Jae Ha, Carrie Han, Christian Rivas, Allison Azarloza, Samantha Balanevsky, Matthew Grenfell, Cristina Poon, Aman Nath and Edward Mort, as well as capital markets partners Josh Korff and Jennifer Lee and associates Alborz Tolou and Elise Wang. Team members represented several of the Kirkland’s U.S. offices as well as its London office. The administrative agent, lead arrangers and lenders in connection with the transaction was represented by Davis Polk.

Sep 14

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised education company EAB on its acquisition of Hybrid, a UK-based leader in digital marketing for higher education, from private equity investor LDC. Read EAB’s press release The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Stuart Boyd, Jamie Gordon, Ari Levi, Adam Diouri, Saniya Sidhu, Joaquim Gomes, Benjamin Jain and Siddharth Rai; tax lawyers Caroline Inker, Mavnick Nerwal and Bryan Leighton; debt finance lawyer Lloyd Robertson-Jones; technology & IP transactions lawyers Daisy Darvall, Emma Flett, Joanna Thomson and Shareen Dhillon; and employment & labor lawyer Colleen Mayer.

Jan 20

1 min

Kirkland is advising Searchlight Capital on the 292.5 million euros recapitalisation of its portfolio company Latecoere and the launch of a rights issue with shareholders’ preferential subscription rights for a minimum amount of 162.5 million euros fully underwritten by Searchlight Capital Partners. Latécoère successfully entered into a conciliation protocol with its present and future financial creditors and its majority shareholder, Searchlight Capital. This protocol concludes the discussions relating to a comprehensive recapitalization of the Group. The protocol is subject to the completion of certain conditions precedent, notably its homologation by the Tribunal de Commerce of Toulouse. Under the terms of the protocol, Latécoère has undertaken to carry out a share capital increase, with preferential subscription rights, for a minimum amount of 162.5 million euros, the prospectus for which must be approved by the AMF. It also provides for the obtaining by Latécoère of Prêt Garanti par l’Etat (PGE) for a principal amount of 130 million euros, the rescheduling of the existing PGE repayment schedule and the deferral of the maturity of certain loans contracted with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to 2027. The team consisted of corporate partner Vincent Ponsonnaille and associate Louis Gosset and debt finance partners Neel Sachdev and Lloyd Jones.

Jul 6

1 min