Magic circle duo Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May have advised on the €800m (£704m) debt restructuring of eyecare company Carl Zeiss Vision Group.

Freshfields restructuring and insolvency partner Richard Tett led a team including London banking partner Peter Hall advising the senior lenders steering committee on the restructuring, which closed earlier this month after 13 months of negotiations.

Freshfields was appointed to advise the committee, which represented lenders such as Credit Suisse, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds TSB, M&G Investments and Avoca Capital, after a competitive tender process carried out in September 2009.

The restructuring dealt with two separate classes of corporate finance debt taken on by Carl Zeiss in early 2007 of €586m (£515m) and $389m (£243m), with the debt held by around 90 lenders. It involved a debt buyback of €330m (£289m), the injection of €90m (£79m) of equity into the business, as well as resetting the financing conditions.

Slaughters and Hengeler Mueller advised Carl Zeiss with London finance partner and corporate recovery head George Seligman and Frankfurt banking Daniel Weiss leading the teams for the respective firms.

Tett commented: "This is good news for all the stakeholders. We are delighted to have worked with the senior lenders steering committee throughout. The complexities arising from the multijurisdictional issues were very challenging and required constructive teamwork from all the different players."

Carl Zeiss Vision Group provides ophthalmic products for consumers and eyecare professionals, including lenses and diagnostic tools.