Linklaters - Banks

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Banks

Recent market events and the subsequent wide-scale government intervention mean that banks need to adapt their business models in order to operate in the changing regulatory and competitive environment. For the foreseeable future, the procedures and processes for assessing, controlling and monitoring bank risk will continue to come under intense scrutiny.

Linklaters advises banks and other financial institutions around the world on their most significant transactions. We possess unrivalled insight into the issues encountered by banks in normal markets and in the face of today’s extraordinary economic upheaval and regulatory change.

We have seen unprecedented levels of activity in the sector and since the financial crisis began we have been instructed in principal roles on over half of the major bank M&A, buy outs and bail outs across the world. Across the sector, the need for adequate capitalisation continues to drive M&A activity, restructuring and insolvency, distressed sales, rights issues and recapitalisations.

We are working with financial institutions across the full scope of their business ranging from complex own account activity, through to day-to-day transactional matters. We are able to harness the benefit of having equal strength in our corporate and M&A, finance and specialist divisions to bring together integrated teams across all the key jurisdictions and business lines in which our clients operate.

This experience, coupled with the strength of our relationships with regulators, is enabling us to work with the world’s major banks not only to help them adapt to and comply with major market changes but also to influence these changes, helping shape the new landscape.

This new landscape will present significant opportunities for new entrants and our experience of advising clients in emerging markets is proving increasingly valuable as commercial and emerging banks take advantage of stronger balance sheets in the current market and new players look to acquire banks, bank assets and bank licences.

Contact us

To contact Linklaters’ global bank sector team, please contact leaders Olivia McKendrick, Jeremy Parr, Giovanni Pedersoli, Andrew Roberts, John Tucker, Alan Walls or Tom Wells.

You can out more about Linklaters’ banking capabilities from sector manager Amanda Cranmer on (44 20) 7456 4987.

Some of the main areas of our bank sector expertise include advising

on many of the recent headline M&A and divestments, for example advising Lloyds TSB on its takeover of HBOS; Merrill Lynch on the $50bn takeover by Bank of America; JPMorgan on its acquisition of the remainder of Cazenove; Citi on the sale of its German retail banking operation to Crédit Mutuel; RBS on the sale of its stake in Bank of China; BBVA on taking a 15% stake in Citic International Financial; Dubai International Capital on a joint venture to acquire a controlling stake in Industrial Development Bank, Jordan; Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank on the disposal of their clearing and settlement business; BNP Paribas on its acquisition of Fortis Belgium; Santander on its acquisition of GE consumer finance businesses; on the sale of Interbanca to GE; OTP Bank (National Savings and Commercial Bank) on its acquisition of Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka a.d. by OTP Bank Nyrt; BlackRock on the acquisition of Barclays Global Investors; ICBC on its strategic partnership with Standard Bank and on its acquisition of a 70% interest in Bank of East Asia (Canada) from Bank of East Asia Limited
on recapitalisations such as acting for RBS on a range of work relating to its recapitalisation, including on its participation in the recently announced Asset Protection Scheme; advising on the £5.5bn recapitalisation of Lloyds TSB; the €11.2bn investment in Fortis by the governments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; the €16.8bn nationalisation of Fortis NL; the €3.5bn Belgium government investment in KBC Group NV; and the €14bn equity and cash protection scheme for KBC Group NV by the Belgium State
on equity issues including acting for Lloyds Banking Group on its proposed £13.5bn Rights Issue and £7.5 billion Liability Management Exercise; advising on the £1.78bn Standard Chartered rights issue; the £12.5bn HSBC rights issue; the €2.5bn rights issue by Nordea; the €1.2bn Banco Espírito Santo rights issue; advising the underwriters on the rights issue by Xstrata; and advising Lloyds Banking Group on its £4bn placing and compensatory open offer
on competition, anti-trust and state aid related issues across Europe, the US, South America and in the developing competition regimes of Asia, providing commercial advice on national, EU and global antitrust matters including acting for 10 European banks in relation to state aid
on regulatory capital and liquidity issues including advising major financial institutions on accessing central bank liquidity schemes
on PIPE investments such as the proposed £179m acquisition of a 23% stake in Bradford & Bingley by Texas Pacific Group (aborted); and Temasek’s investment in Standard Chartered
on the full range of other equity-related transactions, including IPOs, block trades, convertible and exchangeable bonds and bonds with warrants; and advising theJoint Lead Managers on ArcelorMittal’s €1.25bn equity-linked issue
on the debt capital markets side, with expertise ranging from “plain vanilla” to complex cross-border transactions such as stand-alone bonds, EMTN programs, CP programs and high yield offerings, and advising Joint Lead Managers on Banco Cooperativo's EUR1.4bn debt issue
on derivatives and structured products whether relating to interest rates, currencies, credit, equities (including indices and funds), debt or commodities including advising on a joint venture between three leading banks on the establishment of a commodities trading platform
on insolvency matters including acting for PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrators of Lehman Brothers across 70 jurisdictions and advising on related sales of Lehman investment banking and equities business in Europe and the Middle East and businesses in Asia and the Asia Pacific region
on refinancing and restructuring matters including the £85m refinancing of London Scottish Bank; advising the lenders on a US$5bn multicurrency revolving facility for Xstrata; and advising senior lender steering committees on the restructuring of McCarthy & Stone and Crest Nicholson
on all aspects of cross-border advisory and transactional matters relating to tax restructuring and tax based structured products
on banking and finance matters such as asset management, lending and leveraged finance including advising on the US$4.1bn bid by Nordic Capital for ConvaTec – the largest European leveraged buy-out since the start of the global financial crisis in summer 2007; Standard Chartered Bank in a US$475 million term facility to Tata Chemicals Ltd and US$350 million bridge facility to Valley Holdings Inc. relating to the acquisition of General Chemical Industrial Products Inc.; and Schaeffler KG in relation to €16.1bn facilities in its bid for Continental AG
on employee remuneration matters including option and other incentive schemes, pension arrangements and dispute resolution, working with banks to develop creative solutions within the increasingly restricted rules on remuneration; and on issues relating to potentially high value discrimination claims arising from the recent City redundancies
on litigation and contentious regulatory issues such as acting for a major UK bank in relation to the test case proceedings commenced by the OFT in relation to current account overdraft charges; and acting for several banks in disputes and litigation related to structured products arising from and pre-dating the financial crisis
on commodities related transactions, advising on setting up trading platforms, joint ventures, M&A, commodity derivatives trading and associated regulation and contentious litigation issues
on the full range of commercial activities including IT, logistics and other major outsourcing projects, real estate transactions including major sales and leasebacks and data protection