DLA Piper advises Jones Lang LaSalle on the sale of Peterborough Court
10 Aug 2012
DLA Piper today announced that it has advised Jones Lang LaSalle on the restructuring of debts owed by a British Virgin Island incorporated property holding special purpose vehicle. The debtor's primary asset, the freehold of Peterborough Court and Daniel House (the Goldman Sachs buildings, in Fleet Street, London) was successfully disposed of to a purchaser.
The sale is one of the largest disposals this year; the buildings comprise 370,000 square foot of office space, and follows enforcement proceedings which began in September 2010. The debt restructuring and sale involved an innovative series of parallel schemes of arrangement which were in implemented in England and the British Virgin Islands to enable a debt free vehicle to be sold to the purchaser.
Michael Fiddy, partner and London Location Head for Restructuring at DLA Piper said: "This is a significant transaction for Jones Lang LaSalle and we were delighted to be part of such a high-value and high-profile deal in what continues to be a challenging market for commercial real estate transactions. The challenges of a complex capital structure, internationally diverse creditor base and English and British Virgin Island procedures were significant hurdles which we were able to overcome working closely with Jones Lang LaSalle".
The team was led by Michael Fiddy and Simon Neilson-Clark (partners) assisted by David Ampaw (associate) in the London restructuring team and Gary Paddison (partner) and Rachel Orton (associate) in the London Real Estate team.
The purchaser was advised by Ashurst and the purchaser's funder by Mayer Brown International LLP.