Charles Russell Speechlys

Our Luxembourg office concentrates on middle market and large corporate clients operating internationally, investment funds, private equity houses, large family offices, banks and other financial institutions, and specializes in tax planning and mergers and acquisitions.

We have built our reputation on a strong practice in corporate M&A and restructuring, investment management, fintechs and tax planning aspects of international holding and financing structures.

Investment management and funds: Lawyers in Luxembourg advise on the structuring, formation, distribution and on-going operation of various types of investment vehicles (AIF, RAIF, SIF, SICAR, UCI, UCITS, unregulated funds, securitisation vehicle) having all kind of investment strategies (from long only to inter alia private equity, real estate, hedge funds, SRI).

Acting for a broad range of asset managers, our specialist funds, tax and regulatory lawyers combine their skills to deliver tailor-made solutions embracing all aspects of a project. This comprehensive service offering is supported by a large network, including the firm’s offices in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

We are active participants on several ALFI (Association Luxembourgeoise des Fonds d’Investissement) committees (including notably private equity, real estate and social responsible investment) and our lawyers regularly speak at industry conferences and seminars.

Our team relies on their combined in-depth experience to deliver appropriate and timely solutions for your complex investment vehicle structuring.

Corporate: Our corporate team deals with the full range of business transactions – structuring, financing, buying, selling, investments, governance, shareholders’ activism and compliance.

We regularly advise on domestic and international corporate (re)structurings and (re)financings, (de)mergers and acquisitions (including distressed or insolvent targets), joint ventures, management incentive plans and corporate governance.

We mainly act for private equity houses, family offices, high net worth individuals and management teams and have the capability to act on all stages of the life cycle from unregulated fund or company formation, to investment and ultimate exit.

Members of the team have experience of working on the full range of private equity transactions from small cap to some of the largest deals.

We also act for venture and growth capital investors, be they business angels, high net worth investors, venture capital or venture debt funders or providers of growth capital.

Corporate tax: We assist our clients on all direct and indirect tax aspects, hand in hand with the corporate and investment management practices.

We generally step in at the earliest stage of any investment project, from the choice of corporate and regulatory forms of holding to the determination of the most efficient financing instruments.

We have experience and capacity to efficiently structure Luxembourg fund and corporate vehicles, not only for Luxembourg tax purposes, but also to minimise the tax effect in the investee jurisdictions (mainly withholding tax and related “beneficial ownership” issues as well as exit tax aspects).

Where required, our structuring work takes into account the taxation factor of the investors in their own jurisdiction of residence with respect to the return derived from Luxembourg.

We also advise on the structuring of advisory, management fees, promote and other management incentives.

We advise on direct tax and VAT matters as well as registration, succession and donation taxes.

Banking and finance: Our team advises on the whole range of domestic and cross-border financing transactions, structured finance and securitisations, Islamic finance, debt financing and insolvency and restructuring.

Our banking and finance lawyers regularly advise banks, non-bank lenders, institutional investors, corporate borrowers, hedge funds as well as investment funds on Luxembourg and foreign secured and unsecured cross-border financings including leveraged acquisitions, asset finance, project finance, liquidity finance and debt issuances.

Experience includes advising:

• Lenders and obligors in acquisition finance, secured lending transactions, leveraged finance and assets finance (ships, aircrafts);
• Major financial institutions in structured finance, ISDA/FBF arrangements;
• Securitization companies formation and financing; and
• Debtors and creditors on non-contentious aspects of international insolvency and in relation to the restructuring or refinancing of existing structures.

Other offices: Cheltenham, Doha, Dubai, Geneva, Guilford, Hong Kong, London, Manama, Paris, Singapore, Zurich.