Powerhouse A&O Shearman have ‘great depth of practice and experience and international reach’, advising lenders and sponsors on landmark financings, including many pan-European big ticket real estate M&A, European development finance and portfolio transactions. Leading partners Mark Manson-Bahr and Simon Roberts maintain an active international practice advising banks on large scale real estate loan portfolio trades and structures. David Oppenheimer is ’commercial minded and can do it all, including restructuring.’ Peter Mailer and David Varne are also top names to note for lender and borrower-side financing. Joining from Goldman Sachs in early 2023, Anneliese Foster adds complementary expertise in mezzanine lenders and private equity funds on their European real estate finance matters, with a focus on complex infrastructure debt transactions and holdco financings.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘Great team, great depth of practice and experience and international reach.’
‘David Oppenheimer - technically great, commercial minded and can do it all including restructuring. A Star. '
Peter Mailer - again technically great and commercial.'
'David Varne - consistently delivers on large complex deals and can also do back leverage well.’
‘The level of their technical knowledge, their ability to move deals along and to be commercial to resolving issues, their use of tech to manage CP processes and their cross-border reach.’

Work highlights

Advised Starwood on its financing of the acquisition by entities owned by funds managed or advised by Blackstone Inc. and its affiliates of Crown Resorts Limited, a publicly-listed Australian gaming company. With a value of AUD 8.9bn, it is one of the largest and most prominent Australian public M&A deals of 2022.