Cecil Quillen

Cecil is a London-based US partner who is a leading US capital markets practitioner in the London market. He became a partner in the New York office in 1996 and transferred to the London office in 2000. He works on a broad spectrum of securities and finance matters and has extensive experience in offerings of debt, equity, regulatory-capital and structured securities in established and emerging markets, as well as in liability management transactions and restructurings. 

Work highlights

Cecil’s most significant recent transactional experience includes:

• advising the initial purchasers on BT’s US$1 billion debut Rule 144A offering of hybrid capital securities
• advising Rio Tinto on its US$1.25 billion SEC-registered notes offering and concurrent debt tender offer, and generally on US-related disclosure and reporting issues and US capital-raising platforms
• advising Unilever on US-securities-law aspects of its unification transaction and on all its SEC-registered offerings of debt securities
• designated US underwriters counsel for all SEC-registered debt and hybrid/regulatory capital raising by HSBC Holdings plc
• designated US underwriters counsel for all SEC-registered debt and hybrid/regulatory capital raising by Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC
• representing Yellow Cake PLC in multiple placements of its AIM-listed ordinary shares
• representing the bookrunners in the debut Rule 144A offering of AT1 regulatory capital securities by Tinkoff Bank, a leading fintech player
• representing the lead managers on the multi-tranche US$4.5 billion debut Rule 144A notes issuance by London Stock Exchange Group
• advising Hong Kong Airport Authority on its US$1.5 billion debut US issuance of debt securities
• representing the initial purchasers on multiple Yankee bond offerings by Ferguson PLC
• advising Wintershall Dea on disclosure and governance matters and its debut multi-tranche €4 billion notes offering (IFR 2019 Europe Investment-Grade Corporate Bond of the Year)
• representing Assemblin on its €250 million senior secured floating-rate high-yield notes offering
• advising ALMEX as selling shareholder and Halyk Bank as issuer in connection with ALMEX’s US$344 million secondary offering of Halyk Bank GDRs
• representing the lead managers in multiple Rule 144A offerings of sovereign bonds by Egypt, including its jumbo US$3 billion offering in 2021 and its groundbreaking US$2 billion multi-tranche offering in 2020 (Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Middle East Awards 2020 Sovereign Debt Deal of the Year)
• advising, on a pro bono basis, the World Health Organization on securities-law and related issues associated with its involvement in the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) and the funding of the PEF by the World Bank’s Catastrophe-Linked Capital at Risk Notes (IFLR Americas Structured Finance and Securitisation Deal of the Year)
• representing Omantel in its US$1.5 billion secured notes offering in connection with its acquisition of its stake in Zain Telecom (GFC Media 2018 Investment Grade Corporate Bond/Sukuk Deal of the Year)
• representing the joint lead managers in Metinvest’s US$1.6 billion dual-tranche post-restructuring financing and concurrent tender offer/consent (IFR Emerging EMEA Bond Deal of the Year)
• advising SAB Miller on US securities-law-related matters in connection with the AB InBev/SAB Miller acquisition

For Cecil’s additional transactional experience, click here.

Cecil is a recognised senior US practitioner in the London market and speaks regularly at a variety of professional conferences. He is an officer of the Securities Law Committee of the International Bar Association, chairing its Public Company Practice and Regulation Subcommittee, sits on the Advisory Committee for Securities Regulation in Europe of the Practising Law Institute and served from 2005 until 2016 as a member of the board of directors of the High Yield Division of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (formerly the European High Yield Association). Cecil is also a member of the board of directors of Bank of Georgia Group PLC, the London-premium-listed/FTSE-250-constituent holding company for the largest commercial bank in Georgia. He is a trustee of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation, UK Friends of Harvard University and the Harvard Global Foundation.

Cecil received an A.B., magna cum laude with highest honors in History & Literature, in 1985 from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. in 1988 from the University of Virginia, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a notes editor of the Virginia Law Review. He served as a law clerk to Hon. John D. Butzner, Senior Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 1988-89. Cecil is admitted to practice in New York (1989) and the District of Columbia (1991), and is a registered foreign lawyer in England and Wales.