Until now, the general approach has been that a company cannot claim privilege against its own...
We act for a number of banks and other financial institutions in the UK, advising on all aspects of banking and financial transactions. We also regularly advise borrowers and assist management teams in raising finance.
Recent years have seen changes in appetite among lenders for certain types of transaction and new funding solutions have entered the market. Many businesses now enjoy blended financial solutions, encompassing different financial products, often from multiple lenders.
George Green’s experience extends to:
- Acquisition finance
- Asset backed lending
- Commercial property finance
- Confidential invoice discounting and factoring
- Non-traditional finance, including peer to peer lending and crowd funding
- Private equity and venture capital
- Structured finance
- Trade finance, including export and import finance
- Grant support
Acting for lenders
We are experienced in acting for lenders in acquisition finance and in stand-alone re-finances. In some cases, our role may be limited in scope, such as providing a legal opinion upon structure or negotiation of priority and inter-creditor arrangements, with the lender producing its own facility documents and taking its own security. In other cases, we may have a more involved role where we are providing a full service in the drafting of facility documentation and the taking of security.
We also prepare secure documentation in the context of vendor assisted transactions, advising sellers upon priority arrangements and where there are multiple sellers putting in place security trustee arrangements.
Acting for borrowers
We are used to explaining the relative merits of different funding solutions to clients. This is particularly important where funding may be of different types and from different lenders to ensure that the package provides the right support for the current and anticipated future needs of the business. We work closely with brokers and accountants in this evaluation exercise. Where appropriate, we negotiate lending and security documents. Where we are not acting for a borrower, we may be required to give independent advice to a relative who may be providing some security or waiver of rights to support corporate lending. Negotiating documentation to regulate the enforcement and ranking of security documentation, known as priority or inter-creditor documentation, is a frequent practice area for us. This will be required where two or more lenders take security from the same borrower or where the seller or sellers of a business support a transaction with deferred consideration and take security to protect that interest in circumstances where there is other secured lending.
We are very well connected in the corporate finance market and are able to introduce clients to suitable intermediaries who may assist them in their financial modelling and sourcing of an appropriate financial solution.