Andrew Perkins > Macfarlanes LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Advising across a range of a mainstream and alternative asset classes and on the full lifecycle of funds, with the use of AI, the ‘highly knowledgeable and experienced’ team at Macfarlanes LLP regularly advises on investor call bridge facilities, NAV facilities, GP support facilities, equity bridge facilities and equity commitment finance structures. The team is jointly headed up by the ‘top-notch players’ Andrew Perkins, whose focus lies in fund and leverage finance from the lender perspective and Richard Fletcher, who also leads the structured finance and securitisation practice and excels in the structuring of debt finance into a range of investment funds.

Macfarlanes LLP has ‘a very efficient team that can work to challenging timetables and always keeps clients updated on progress‘. The firm handles a broad range of work, encompassing residential and commercial mortgage, consumer loans, trade receivables and whole business deals. The firm acts for banks, alternative lenders and, increasingly, credit funds. On fund finance matters, Richard Fletcher ‘is always available to offer sound practical advice and seems to be well respected by counterparts‘. He advised Venn Partners LLP on a £100m tap issuance of bonds. Head of the finance group Andrew Perkins is a key adviser to banks, alternative lenders and credit funds. Among the senior associates, Kelly Wilson and Scottish-qualified Ryan Moore play key roles in the practice.

Although Macfarlanes LLP remains best-known for its mid-market leveraged finance private credit expertise, it also handles a fairly sizeable volume of borrower side corporate lending mandates. Key to the firm’s success on this front is ‘tour de force’ Kirstie Hutchinson, who regularly services the finance needs of large investment grade corporates, particularly when there is a high degree of contractual complexity involved. Andrew Perkins heads up the overarching banking and finance team.

Fund instructions form much of Macfarlanes LLP‘s acquisition finance work, whether it be work for credit funds lending to sponsors, or private equity funds as borrowers in M&A. In this context, the firm also benefits from a one-stop-shop service, having in some cases set up the original fund through its strong fund formation practice. Drawing on ‘superb legal knowledge and experience’, Malcolm Hitching has ‘the ability to think creatively and commercially’, ensuring that mid-market sponsors receive an excellent service on their leveraged finance mandates. Kirstie Hutchinson is also highly accomplished on behalf of fund clients as borrowers, while team head Andrew Perkins takes the lead in most of the firm’s most significant credit fund lender work.