27 May 2013

Asset finance

Starting Area/Sector information

The Global Asset Finance group specialises in all areas of leasing and financing involving assets and infrastructure. We are an integrated part of the Firm's market leading Finance practice and work closely with our projects, securitisation, capital markets, tax, insolvency and regulatory groups

Global reach

We have core teams located in London, New York, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo with lawyers in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Asia who are experienced in cross-border and domestic asset finance work. With over 30 years of experience, the practice encompasses over 25 partners and counsel and more than 70 associates who are dedicated asset finance specialists.

Specialist product and industry knowledge

By bringing together specialist product and industry knowledge, we are perfectly placed to advise you on your most complex transactions across the globe. Key industries and sectors include aircraft, rail, structured products, PFI/PPP, infrastructure, defence, shipping and film finance. The team is part of the Firm's Transport  & Logistics group.

With full service capabilities, we are ideally placed to advise you from the development of an acquisition or financing structure, drafting of a term sheet, negotiations with transaction parties, documentation through to execution and post-closing matters. We are frequently involved in complex, large volume cross-border financings and restructurings, often within a tight timetable.

Areas of expertise

We have extensive experience of all types of transactions involving big ticket assets which can involve any or combinations of:

  • Secured lending solutions as well as involvement in "secondary" transactions (such as receivables financing and risk transfer programme)
  • Debt financing (such as bank debt and capital markets funding)
  • Export credit financing
  • Operating leases
  • Restructurings and work-outs
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Establishment of dedicated funds
  • Manufacturer support programmes
  • Remarketing and Asset management
  • Project linked financing (such as Private Finance Initiative/Public-Private Partnerships ("PFI/PPP") transactions
  • Islamic financing
  • Tax leasing
  • Structured finance products (such as defeasance structures and preference share schemes, which may or may not involve an underlying asset and which are typically tax or accounting driven)

We are well placed to advise you on all areas of asset and structured finance globally.