LUXEMBOURG - BANKING & FINANCE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR
WILDGEN DANIEL BOONE - CORPORATE AND FINANCE PARTNER T: +352 40 49 60 - 360 daniel.boone@wildgen.lu MICHEL BULACH - BANKING AND INSURANCE PARTNER T: +352 40 49 60 - 228 Michel.bulach@wildgen.lu www.wildgen.lu
Wildgen, Partners in Law is one of the top 10 Luxembourg business law firms. It was originally founded by Victor Bodson in the early 1920s. Following the leave in 1977 of its founder Maître Victor Bodson, also a former member of the Luxembourg Government and a member of the European Commission, Maître Albert Wildgen decidedly centered the law firm’s activity towards business law and financial law. The firm is one of the country’s leading firms and has been heavily involved in cross-border transactions on a high-level basis. Luxembourg has a multilingual workforce and a stable political environment which promotes the country as an ideal location for foreign and local investors to conduct their financial business. Partner Daniel Boone commented on the recent emerging trends associated with Luxembourg’s financial situation: “Recent months showed a trend to relocate offshore activities to on-
shore platforms and, in this respect, Luxembourg has been identified as a preferred relocation place. The expansion of China also had significant effects in Luxembourg, with the increasing local positioning of Chinese banks (e.g. Bank of China) and the volume of cross-border transactions involving Chinese investors.” Mr. Boone is actively involved in the field of debt structuring and restructuring. He has been involved in a large number of transactions and has acted as the special legal advisor for the security agent in the context of the famous Monier Lafarge debt restructuring which raised complex legal issues and dealt with the first ever enforcement of financial collaterals in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg Government and the administrative and supervisory authorities in partnership with the country’s top professionals, (bankers, other professionals of the financial sector, lawyers), continue to work together to make the most of the innovative and business-friendly legal and regulatory framework in order to offer the best possible protection to the investors. As a result of the country’s enduring efforts to encourage both national and international investment in Luxembourg, firms such as Wildgen are required to offer high quality professional services to the ever-growing client base in the region. “Since the 1980s, our firm has undergone a significant development jointly with the impressive boom witnessed by the Luxembourg financial market. We focus our activity on corporate law, banking & finance, investment funds and tax but also have sound track report in niche areas such as administrative law, reinsurance or Islamic finance,” explained Michel Bulach, Banking and Insurance Partner. Mr Bulach has a sound reputation in banking regulatory and insolvency related matters and has advised Kaupting bank in the past. Mr Bulach also acts as the legal counsel for a number of Luxembourg banking institutions. He is co-head of the Banking & Insurance practice of Wildgen where he manages securitisation and insurance & reinsurance activities.
LUXEMBOURG - BANKING & FINANCE LAWYER OF THE YEAR
SJL | SEDLO JIMENEZ LUNZ MICHEL JIMENEZ LUNZ FOUNDING AND CO-MANAGING PARTNER T: +352 246 185 20 jimenezlunz@sjl-legal.com www.sjl-legal.com
Sedlo Jimenez Lunz LAW FIRM
LUXEMBOURG
SJL | Sedlo Jimenez Lunz (“SJL”) is an independent Luxembourg law firm that offers legal services in all fields of business law. SJL’s wideranging expertise in Luxembourg finance, securities and corporate law allows it to advise leading institutional and major corporate clients on sophisticated and complex cross-border transactions, including banking & finance, structured finance, securitisations, public offerings and private placements of securities, alternative investment vehicles, restructuring & insolvency, M&A and corporate financial transactions. SJL is considered by market’s experts and its clients as a “top-notch for finance” (Legal500). SJL is the first choice of many leading international law firms that do not have a presence in Luxembourg. SJL is a member of the reputable Luxembourg bankers’ association (ABBL) and of the Luxembourg fund industry association (ALFI). Michel Jimenez Lunz is a Managing Partner of SJL and heads up
the Banking & Finance, the Insolvency & Restructuring and Corporate practices of the firm. He represents leading institutional and major corporate clients since the end of the 1990s. Before setting up SJL, he has worked at Arthur Andersen and held a high-level position at Clifford Chance in Luxembourg. He is seating at the Securities Committee of the ABBL. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish. Michel is highly recommended by Chambers & Partners as a “leading lawyer in Banking & Finance.” Michel is in particular a recognised expert in financing, refinancing and restructuring transactions and in the taking and negotiation of security packages as well as JV agreements. Some notable Banking & Finance mandates carried out by SJL over the past year includes representing a leading Anglo-Saxon bank in connection with the enforcement of a Luxembourg law governed pledge agreement over financial instruments granted in connection with a €2,217 billion facility agreement. A leading broadcasting and media European group of companies mandated SJL with respect to the amendment, restatement and partial refinancing of a €4,2 billion facilities agreement made available to the group by a pool of banks. The firm also represented Arminius Funds in connection with the acquisition from Eurocastle, as part of a loan restructuring, of the controlling-majority stake in various SPVs holding 28 primarily commercial properties with a market value of approximately €1 billion. The firm further represented a pool of German banks in connection with a €220 million loan facility made available to a real estate private equity funds. SJL also has experience representing a UK investment group in connection with the early repayment of the approximately €1.1 billion portfolio of leveraged bonds and the termination of a credit agreement from leading US and German banks.
CORPORATE INTL GLOBAL AWARDS 2011
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