Now headed by the ‘very knowledgeable’ Kieran Sharma, following the departure in November 2024 of Jifree Cader and Mark Knight to Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Sidley Austin LLP maintains a solid practice for debtors and creditors both domestically and in a cross-border context. On the company side, the team continues to work closely with colleagues in Hong Kong, helping to restructure the offshore debt of beleaguered Chinese real estate companies, including in some instances through the means of a UK restructuring plan. The strengthening of the firm’s London sponsor-focused leveraged finance practice in October 2024, following the recruitment of a high-profile team from Latham & Watkins, is also expected to elicit debtor mandates for distressed portfolio companies. In addition, Sharma’s own buy-side experience, having worked in-house at a major global investment firm, is beneficial to clients on opportunistic credit solutions.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'It is a very strong and knowledgeable team, both on company and creditor side.'
- 'The team provides innovative, highly commercial and solutions focused advice.'
- 'The very knowledgeable Kieran Sharma benefits from buy-side experience, which makes his advice ever more so relevant.'
- 'Kieran Sharma and Dhevine Chandrapala are both exceptional—commercially astute, highly responsive, and consistently calm under pressure.'
- 'Sidley’s restructuring team stands out for its seamless integration of restructuring and leveraged finance expertise, on both sides of the pond, making it a go-to for cross-border mandates. Very impressed with their commitment and ethos.'
- 'Kieran Sharma led the team. Kieran and his team were innovative, highly commercial and solutions focussed, anticipating issues and proposing solutions.'
Key clients
- Ad Hoc Group of Class B Creditors to the Thames Water Group
- Sino-Ocean Group Holdings Limited
- Coupang Inc
- Shimao Group Holdings Limited
- Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd
- HIG European Capital Partners II LLP
Work highlights
Representing an ad hoc group of Class B creditors to the Thames Water Group, in relation to its £3bn rescue financing proposal, to be implemented by way of a UK restructuring plan.
Represented Sino-Ocean Group Holding Limited, a leading property developer in the People’s Republic of China, on the complex restructuring of its offshore debt.
Advising Shimao, a Chinese real estate company on its proposed Hong Kong scheme of arrangement to restructure c. 85% of its offshore indebtedness amounting to a total of approximately $11.5bn in outstanding liabilities, including NY law-governed private and public notes and HK law-governed syndicated and bilateral loans.
Practice head
Kieran Sharma
Other key lawyers
Dhevine Chandrapala