Four Seasons £1.5bn finance talks lures major City line-up

Macfarlanes, Allen & Overy (A&O), Linklaters, Ashurst and Kirkland & Ellis have advised as the company was this month granted a repayment reprieve until the end of October, giving it time to work with lenders on restructuring its debt.The repayment was part of an agreement with the care-home chain made in 2006 when it was bought out by investment house Three Delta for £1.4bn from former owners, Allianz Capital Partners.The original deal gave Four Seasons until the end of August to refinance the debt but the company was unable to do so owing to the poor credit markets. Macfarlanes has been acting for Four Seasons throughout the negotiations, with corporate partner Ian Martin taking the lead. The top 30 firm has advised Four Seasons since 1999 and Martin advised the company's management team during its 2006 buy-out. Four Seasons has been left with 11 tranches of debt including some payment-in-kind (PIK) loans held by lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Trafalgar Asset Managers.

September 10, 2008 at 10:38 PM

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The repayment was part of an agreement with the care-home chain made in 2006 when it was bought out by investment house Three Delta for £1.4bn from former owners, Allianz Capital Partners.

The original deal gave Four Seasons until the end of August to refinance the debt but the company was unable to do so owing to the poor credit markets.

Macfarlanes has been acting for Four Seasons throughout the negotiations, with corporate partner Ian Martin taking the lead.

The top 30 firm has advised Four Seasons since 1999 and Martin advised the company's management team during its 2006 buy-out.

Four Seasons has been left with 11 tranches of debt including some payment-in-kind (PIK) loans held by lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Trafalgar Asset Managers.

Ashurst is advising RBS with a team led by international finance chief Nigel Ward and with corporate partner Giles Boothman also acting.

Kirkland's London office is advising a consortium of PIK lenders, with European restructuring chief Lyndon Norley (pictured) leading the team.

Linklaters' restructuring head, Tony Bugg, banking partner Yushan Ng and A&O's London restructuring head, Earl Griffith, are also involved for the lenders.

Norley said: "The process has been slow to date but, given the state of the economy and the importance of the status quo this has not been a concern – but issues now need to be addressed."