Ben Churchyard > Shoosmiths LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Ben Churchyard

Work Department

Corporate

Position

Ben is a Senior Associate in the Banking and Finance team, based in our London office. Ben specialises in acquisition and leveraged finance transactions, as well as having experience advising banks, financial institutions and corporates in relation to real estate finance and general corporate banking.

Ben’s recent deal experience includes:

• • advising Livingbridge Enterprises LLP in relation to the debt and equity restructure of one of its portfolio companies – a leading online energy and services provider to off-grid homes across the UK including Northern Ireland;

• • advising a well-renowned challenger bank in respect of a multi-million pound cross-jurisdictional facilities agreement provided to an online shopping search engine operating in the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Cayman Islands, Germany, Turks and Caicos, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Norway;

• • acting for an aerospace group in relation to its debt facilities from a US fund, alongside asset financing from a UK lender, including debt to equity conversion steps;

• • advising a Five Arrows Growth Capital backed borrower in relation to a multi-million pound facilities agreement provided by Goldman Sachs in respect of its acquisition of Symposium Capital Ltd;

• • advising Santander UK plc in relation to its acquisition finance facility to transport software provider Mandata;

• • advising Alpha Group Bidco Limited (and NVM as sponsor) in relation to various loans provided by Thincats as part of the private equity backed MBO of Pareto Facilities Management Ltd;

• • acting for British International Investment plc (the UK’s development finance institution) and Swedfund International plc in relation to their financing of Stichting Medical Credit Fund, a fund financing small and medium-sized healthcare facilities in Africa;

• • advising a mid-market private equity firm in respect of debt funding received from a clearing bank to partly fund the acquisition of a care management technology business, alongside the investment provided by the private equity firm; and

• • acting for Shawbrook Bank Limited in respect of a number of commercial loans to fund various acquisitions.

Career

Ben commenced his training contract with Shoosmiths in September 2017 and qualified into the banking and finance team in September 2019. During his training contract, Ben spent six months on secondment with Meridian Corporate Finance.

Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Ben studied law at the University of Exeter before completing the LPC with distinction at BPP University, London.