Shoosmiths LLP

Banking and Finance

Suzanne is a banking and finance principal associate, undertaking a wide range of debt finance work, including acquisition finance, invoice and receivables finance and property finance on a bilateral, club or syndicated basis. Suzanne acts for borrowers, banks and financial institutions at both senior and mezzanine level. She has experience of advising on regional, national and international transactions.

Suzanne works with a range of documentation including facility agreements, security documents, intercreditor agreements and legal opinions. Her experience includes working with bilateral bank standard documentation as well as Loan Market Association and bespoke finance documents. Suzanne's recent experience includes:

acting for a corporate owner and operator of hotels in relation to a £30.4m development finance facility from a major UK clearing bank; acting for an education provider group (backed by a private investment business) in relation to a £10.5m term and £8.5m revolving credit facility from a major UK clearing bank, together with the acquisition of two education targets; advising a global B2B agency network in relation to a £8.5m term loan facility with a specialist fund manager to finance, amongst other things, the acquisition of two companies; acting for the invoice finance arm of a major UK clearing bank in relation to a £4m receivables facility and £7.5m inventory facility to a supplier of toys; advising a major UK clearing bank in relation to a £35m facilities agreement to finance, amongst other things, an onlend to an Indian subsidiary for the manufacture of flatbreads; advising a co-educational independent and boarding schools group in relation to a £37.5m term loan facility from two major UK clearing banks to finance, amongst other things, an acquisition by the group of a triple newco structure and the refinance of existing facilities; advising an asset finance provider in relation to a £6.3m loan to finance four wind farms; advising an invoice finance provider in relation to a £8 million invoice discounting agreement and £2 million asset based lending agreement to a manufacturer and retailer of soft toys; advising a UK bank, invoice finance provider and asset finance provider in relation to the £13 million term loan facility, £7.5 million lease purchase facility and £6 million receivables finance facility to a high end UK meal preparation provider; advising an invoice finance provider in relation to a back to back invoice discounting facility to a UK company to finance receivables finance facilities provided by the borrower to its customers; and advising a UK bank, invoice finance provider and asset finance provider in relation to a £13 million receivables finance facility, a £5 million revolving credit facility and a £30 million lease purchase agreement for the funding of UK based imaging equipment, scanners and truck mounted mobile scanning units.

Suzanne has been recognised as an "Associate to Watch" in Chambers 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. In addition, Suzanne is recognised in Chambers 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 as a "Notable Practitioner".

 Suzanne qualified with Blake Morgan in 2008 and then joined Shoosmiths in September 2011.  In 2013, Suzanne spent five months on secondment to the Financial Sponsors South arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, where she was involved in providing debt facilities in support of UK mid-market private equity transactions.