Nick Syson > Linklaters LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile
Linklaters LLP Offices
ONE SILK STREET
LONDON
EC2Y 8HQ
England
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Nick Syson
Work Department
Banking, Leveraged Finance
Position
Nick is a market-leading leveraged finance specialist. He acted on his first leveraged buyout in 1988, he set up the firm’s leveraged finance practice in 2001 with Gideon Moore and he was Co-Head of the Leveraged Finance Practice until 2016. Nick was elected by the Partners to the firm’s supervisory board for consecutive terms and he remains on the firm’s audit committee. He is also the firm’s Health and Wellbeing Partner.
Within his practice, he advises arranging banks on financial sponsor-backed leveraged finance transactions and coordinating bank and steering committees on debt restructurings. He also advises on bank/bond financings.
Nick has been involved in a number of pioneering developments in the leveraged finance sector, most recently acting for the underwriters on the financings for both the acquisition of Coty and the bid for MasMovil, being the financing transactions that reopened the European leveraged loan market post Covid19 and, prior to that, on a number of transactions that established and evolved the European cov-lite leveraged loan product. He has also acted on some of the early “Opco/Propco” financings (in which the finance is divided between operating companies and property-owning businesses), regulatory life insurance arbitrage transactions, transactions involving hedging uneven cashflows, infrastructure acquisition financings and numerous debt restructuring transactions. Nick was based in Singapore for two years where he focused on, and developed his knowledge of, regional debt restructuring.
Lawyer Rankings
London > Finance > Acquisition finance
(Hall of Fame)Drawing on expertise across pure leveraged finance, corporate lending, structured finance and restructuring, the ‘extremely efficient and collaborative’ team at Linklaters LLP provides ‘high-quality work’ across the full range and life cycle of financial transactions to banks, funds and investment grade corporates. This versatile and holistic approach ensures that it is ‘able to deliver at an extremely high level on a hugely complicated breadth of transactions’, running the gamut from bank and bond structures, and TLBs, through to unitranche facilities and PIK financings. The ‘highly commercial’ Oliver Sceales has deep traction among sponsors, which are appreciative of his ability to ‘deliver market leading terms in an incredibly user friendly and dynamic fashion’. Lauded for his ‘commercial acumen and constructive approach’, Pathik Gandhi ‘is well respected by the lender community’, ensuring that he is a popular choice both on leveraged finance deals, where he is instructed bank side, as well as where the lender is a counterparty. Chris Medley excels in providing lender side advice on sponsor-backed leveraged deals, both for banks on large underwritten TLB transactions, as well as for credit funds on unitranche financings. Other recommended practitioners include seasoned banking lawyer Nick Syson , whose work at the vanguard of the market has included the development of the now well-established European cov-lite leveraged loan product; Rohan Saha, for his work across products for banks and credit funds; and David Irvine, who co-heads the leveraged finance practice alongside Sceales.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Finance > Acquisition finance
- Finance > Bank lending: investment grade debt and syndicated loans
- Dispute resolution > Banking litigation: investment and retail
- Risk advisory > Corporate governance
- Finance > Corporate restructuring & insolvency
- Risk advisory > Data protection, privacy and cybersecurity
- Finance > Debt capital markets
- Finance > Derivatives and structured products
- Industry focus > Emerging markets
- Employment > Employee share schemes
- Employment > Employers
- Real estate > Environment
- Corporate and commercial > Equity capital markets – mid-large cap
- Corporate and commercial > EU and competition
- Corporate and commercial > Financial services: contentious
- Corporate and commercial > Financial services: non-contentious/regulatory
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Fintech
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Infrastructure: M&A and acquisition financing
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Infrastructure: Project finance and development
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > IT and telecoms
- Crime, fraud and licensing > Fraud: civil
- Corporate and commercial > M&A: Upper Mid-Market And Premium Deals, £750m+
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Mining and minerals
- Employment > Pensions (non-contentious)
- Employment > Pensions: dispute resolution
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Power (including electricity, nuclear and renewables)
- Transport > Rail
- Investment fund formation and management > Real estate funds
- Finance > Securitisation
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Water
Firm Rankings
- Corporate and commercial > Commercial contracts
- Dispute resolution > Commercial litigation: premium
- Real estate > Commercial property: development
- Real estate > Commercial property: investment
- Dispute resolution > Competition litigation
- Corporate and commercial > Corporate tax
- Crime, fraud and licensing > Fraud: civil
- Finance > High yield
- Insurance > Insurance: corporate and regulatory
- Industry focus > Life sciences and healthcare
- Projects, energy and natural resources > Oil and gas
- Corporate and commercial > Private equity: transactions – high-value deals (£250m+)
- Investment fund formation and management > Private funds
- Real estate > Property finance
- Risk advisory > Regulatory investigations and corporate crime (advice to corporates)
- Finance > Trade finance
- Public sector > Administrative and public law
- Real estate > Commercial property: corporate occupiers
- Real estate > Construction: non-contentious
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Intellectual property: patents (contentious and non-contentious)
- Dispute resolution > International arbitration
- Dispute resolution > Public international law
- Industry focus > Retail and consumer
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Intellectual property: trade marks, copyright and design
- Finance > Transport finance and leasing
- TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Sport
- Real estate > Commercial property: corporate occupiers