Finance
Leveraging its deep-rooted firmwide institutional ties with a high proportion of FTSE-listed corporates, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP is best-known for its borrower work. This includes advice across the full scope of their ongoing debt finance needs, including in the context of revolving credit facilities and strategic M&A, both of which often involve banking syndicates. Kristen Roberts, who oversees the firm’s well-received annual corporate debt and treasury report it produces in collaboration with the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT), has deep insight into market trends ensuring he is very well-placed to advise corporates on their debt and treasury needs, including identifying arbitrage opportunities. ‘Very strategic’ US-qualified partner Gabrielle Wong has a focus on advising corporates on New York-law governed financing terms, and is pivotal to the firm’s success advising on finance structures to borrowers in the music and royalty space. On the lender front, the team is best-known for its emerging markets work, particularly in the context of multi-sourced financings, as well as for banks funding reserve-based lending transactions in the oil and gas sector. William Breeze co-heads the team alongside Wong and Roberts.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Mentions
Profile
Work Department
Corporate debt finance and treasury, Acquisition and leveraged finance, Sustainable and green finance, ESG and sustainability
Position
Managing Partner, London
Career
Kristen heads our Finance practice for the West and is global co-head of Finance. He focuses in corporate debt and acquisition finance and providing general treasury advice.
Kristen also leads the corporate debt practice in London, advising a substantial number of listed and unlisted corporates on their debt financing and treasury needs. He advises on a wide range of financing transactions and focuses in acquisition and public bid finance.
More broadly, Kristen's practice has expanded to reflect broadening corporate treasury roles; he advises extensively on covenant support arrangements provided to other stakeholders, for example in relation to pension covenant arrangements and supply chain financing.
Kristen advises clients on debt raisings across the loan and private placement markets (both UK, US and European financings) as well as on trade finance, recourse and non-recourse receivables and borrowing-base financings and finance leasing. His focus in public bid finance regularly sees him appointed by bidders and the global investment banks to advise on the implementation of Takeover Code compliant bid financing arrangements. Kristen utilises his knowledge of the trends and opportunities in the debt markets to assist clients in optimising their debt capital structures and taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunities of raising debt across different products and markets.
In addition, Kristen works closely with our pensions and insurance practices in employing leveraged finance techniques for the benefit of corporates, pension trustees, insurers and reinsurers in their transactions to insulate them from risk and marshal the interests of competing stakeholders.
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Gabrielle Wong is very strategic and provides spot-on and decisive advice on time-sensitive and fast moving transactions.'
Key clients
- Natixis DNB Bank Lloyds BNP Paribas Bank of China Citibank Synthomer plc HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited Shaftesbury Capital Plc EML Payments Limited MusicBird AG MusicBird Rights AG Nexthink SA Nexthink, Inc Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited Barclays Bank
Work highlights
Advised Natixis SA and the other lenders on a $1.4bn reserve-based loan to BlueNord ASA to refinance its existing reserve-based loan.
Advised Synthomer plc on the amendment and restatement of its $400m revolving credit facility and its €287.5m and $230m term loan facilities backed by UK Export Finance.
Advised HarbourVest Global Private Equity Limited (HVPE) on a new $1.2bn multicurrency NAV-based revolving credit facility, to provide an enhanced level of support for HVPE's balance sheet reflecting its net asset growth.