Addleshaw
Goddard
• Departmental overview: The asset
finance department of Addleshaw Goddard stands out for its degree
of specialism in a range of work.
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Its international work has expanded
considerably since a recent change to UK laws enabled lessors to
effectively provide double dips on leases involving non-UK
funders/clients. Today this type of work now represents 30 percent
of the department’s total work – significantly higher than it was
before the changes.
It also stands out for its sheer
volume of insolvency work, and it has handled asset finance issues
relating to the insolvencies of large UK short term rental company
Newtown Rental, Industrial Corporate Finance and the large access
platforms hire services company Access Rentals.
On the litigation front, it acted in
the leading case on enforcement of personal guarantees, ING Lease
(UK) Limited v Harwood, one of the few reported leasing related
cases of the past 12 months.
Also while continuing to be one of
the few firms involved in Sharia finance transactions, it has also
done a fair number of software finance transactions, including one
valued at £70 million (€76.4 million).
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By GlobalDataOther work includes: advising in a
£70 million securitisation for Carlyle Finance, a £5 million
forklift truck finance transaction and a £40 million financing of
beer pumps for Heineken and Carlsberg pubs.
New clients this year include
Macquarie Bank and Mitie Group, the UK engineering and power
company.
• Key personalities: The firm has
continued its old structure with its London office, run by Sally
Butt, handling litigation and Andrew Maskill running
non-contentious out of Manchester.
• Financial growth: The firm saw
billings rise last calendar year by 2 percent, and it expects
similar growth come year end 2009.
HBJ Gateley Wareing
• Departmental overview: HBJ Gateley
Wareing deserves some recognition for pulling off some impressive
coups over the last two years – and also for ramping-up its
position in the asset finance fraud sector.
First off, it has seen its big and
medium ticket marine work expand significantly thanks to its 2007
merger with shipping firm Shaw and Croft and a year later with
another maritime firm, Holmes Hardingham.
Besides giving the firm a greater
foothold in transport work, it has also meant that under Jane
Hobbs, who runs the firm’s shipping and transport business, it has
been able to grow its yacht finance business. Working for her is
Richard Coles, a world-renowned expert on yacht registration.
Second, besides having acted on
Global EPP, Thorneycroft, Euro UK Hire Ltd and Gwent Fleet
Management (see Shoosmiths write-up for more information), the
anti-fraud asset finance arm of the firm, run by James Baird, has
also increased its international anti-fraud work.
This has included tracing assets to
other north European countries and the Far East, and Baird was
instrumental in getting a judgment against the founder of Cheshire
Leasing, which was linked to the Lifestyle TV scam.
Meanwhile, transactional work has
included advising BT Fleet on lease transactions with utilities
companies.
New clients for the asset finance
department in 2009 include: Arian Finance Ltd, County Asset Finance
Ltd, General Capital Ltd, SG Equipment Finance Ltd, Volkswagen
Financial Services (UK) Ltd.
• Key personalities: James Baird has
managed to get involved in all the key fraud cases of the past
year, and has done so with a small team of just six fee earners and
one other partner, Melanie Chell.
• Financial growth: James Baird’s
team saw revenues grow year-on-year by 31 percent during the first
half of 2009 and by 21 percent during the 2008 calendar year.
Morton Fraser
• Departmental overview: For an
asset finance department (run out of Glasgow by Bruce Wood) that
has just three partners and five associates, Morton Fraser clearly
hits above its weight.
First, from its roots in leasing it
has now branched heavily into invoice discounting (ID), and this
business has contributed heavily to the record 40 percent
year-on-year growth in new business during the department’s first
quarter of 2009 (1 May to 1 August). Wood said in recent weeks he
has handled a nine-figure sum ID deal for a high street
organisation, too.
Second, the size of the deals it has
had lead roles on has been extremely impressive. For example, it
advised National Australia Bank on its disposal of local authority
lease receivables worth £65 million to no less than nine
acquirers.
The deal involved thousands of
documents and reassessing large numbers of RVs on assets being
sold.
Also, for Clydesdale it advised on
the sale of lease and HP agreements with a value of £183 million
(€200 million), and it also acted for Fortis Lease on a £250
million asset finance facility and the acquisition of £23 million
of HP and credit sale agreements.
In short, Wood’s team has shown that
far from being on its knees, activity in the asset – and also sales
– finance industry is rampant.
It has also done litigation work,
including in claims involving Shire Leasing and also the Global EPP
scam.
• Key personalities: Bruce Wood is
the backbone of the department, and has been a partner at Morton
Fraser since 1977. He is the contact partner for a number of key
clients including Fortis Lease, BNP Paribas Lease Group, Lombard,
Barclays Asset & sales Finance, while his department also acts
for manufacturer clients such as Sun Microsystems and Hitachi Data
Systems Finance.
• Financial growth: Billings for the
department rose year-on-year during financial year 2008 (year to 30
April) by 10 percent and by a department record 40 percent during
the first quarter of 2009.
Shoosmiths
• Departmental overview: Shoosmiths’
small and mid-ticket asset and consumer finance department has seen
impressive growth since its formation in January 2008. The number
of lawyers and also offices has tripled in size and next year, its
head, Joanne Davis, who has run both the transactional and
non-transactional work of the department, plans to promote
associates in three offices up to partnership level.
In addition, it has managed to act
in all of the large fraud cases of the past 12 months (see below),
an area Davis handles herself, and has become a key adviser in the
Finance & Leasing Association’s efforts to increase
self-regulation (particularly by outlawing corrupt bundled leases),
and also has kept up a range of transactional work (key work in
this area is that it advised Volkswagen Bank on its replacement of
Volkswagen Financial Services for all wholesale funding to VW
brands in the UK).
The department has also won an
impressive number of new clients over the past 12 months,
including: BNP Paribas Lease Group, Hitachi Europe (Rail Division),
Porterbrook, Stagecoach Group, Freightliner Group, Swiss
International Airlines, TUI Travel, Lombard and Singers Corporate
Finance.
• Key personalities: As well as
running a large team of 27 asset finance lawyers, and personally
handling a series of large-scale fraud cases, Joanne Davis, aged
just 34, has also been responsible for the growth of the
department. She has achieved this largely thanks to her many
contacts in the industry and also working tirelessly for the firm.
In addition, the firm managed to attract Chris McClure, a big
hitter in the big-ticket asset finance sector, from Blake Lapthorn
earlier this year.
• Financial growth: Performance has
been good with new billings growing year-on-year during the first
six months of this year by 41 percent and 92 percent last calendar
year. However, it must be noted that the department was only
largely – although not entirely – formed in January 2008.
• Key work: Fraud-busting is a
mainstay of Davis’ department. Key examples of ones the department
has acted in include Global EPP (£100 million [€109 million] case
of multiple financing), Thorneycroft (£80 million case of multiple
financing), Euro Hire Ltd (multiple financing, shipping goods
illegally overseas) and Gwent Fleet (multi-million pound car fraud
in Wales). It has also muscled into the lucrative area of yacht
mortgage enforcement, while Davis was selected in recent months by
the Finance & Leasing Association to investigate how to tackle
semi-fraudulent bundled lease transactions.
Salans
• Departmental overview: Salans’
asset finance arm has had a formidable year – both in terms of its
deal-breaking successes, and also for having grown its litigation
arm into a key sector player.
One of its key pieces of work of
recent months has been acting for a large captive in a $300 million
(€202 million) deal related to a multi-currency sale and purchase
of insurance backed receivables relating to the finance of motor
dealers in 76 jurisdictions.
It has also advised on standstill
agreements (where lenders, usually larger ones, seek to avoid
lessees going into administration by restructuring deals and such
things as payment holidays), particularly for Lloyds UDT. The firm
is also advising on asset finance issues arising out of the
administrations of MK Airlines and Brent Plant Limited.
The asset finance department has an
impressive line-up of lawyers doing leasing transactional work,
which includes Stephen Finch, Salans’ global chairman, Howard
Cohen, the firm’s London managing partner, Paula Howard, head of
banking, and also Mike Kilbey who joined the firm in 2008 from
Lloyds TSB, where he was legal director for its in-house
division.
New clients the department gained in
2009 include Lombard, HBOS, Paccar, A&L, NAB Group, Clydesdale,
Fortis Lease, Hitachi Capital and Liberty Leasing.
• Key personalities: Kevin Heath has
been instrumental in growing Salans’ asset finance litigation
department. Over the last year it has gained a formidable
reputation as a lead player in this sector, particularly in respect
of litigation involving complex fraud and asset tracing.
For instance, Heath was a key player
in bringing together a host of lessors together in a co-joined
action against Irish lessors for multiple financing in the Euro UK
Hire Ltd case. Heath and his small team also acted in the Global
EPP giant litigation, and represented Shire in complex proceedings
in which the broker was sued by ING Lease UK.
• Financial growth: New billings
during 2008 rose by 10 percent, and by the same amount again during
the first half of 2009.
