Allen & Overy (A&O) and Slaughter and May have taken lead roles on a £1.2bn refinancing for Gatwick Airport.

The refinancing, which closed last week ( 2 March), saw Slaughters act for Gatwick Airport and its largest shareholder Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), with A&O advising the lead arranger Royal Bank of Scotland.

The two-part refinancing comprised a £600m bond issue combined with a new £600m bank loan, with the deal fully refinancing GIP's £1.5bn acquisition of Gatwick from BAA in 2009.

City banking and finance partner Marc Hutchinson led the team for Slaughters, while A&O fielded a team led by London finance partners Conrad Andersen and Tim Conduit. A&O also advised the trustee, led by partner Morgan Krone, with tax partner Mark Brailsford also taking a role.

Andersen said: "The programme forms part of a continuing trend of infrastructure refinancings which sees significant bank and bond debt sitting next to each other on a common platform. The structure gives Gatwick Airport the flexibility to refinance its acquisition debt as well as funding its future capital expenditure."

Conduit added: "The Gatwick debt platform is one of very few to have combined significant bank and bond financing elements in a transaction where structural enhancements have been successfully used to optimise the bond ratings.  We are very pleased to have supported the development of the platform across both financing sources."

Both firms took lead roles on the initial acquisition of Gatwick Airport from BAA by a GIP-led consortium in October 2009. That deal saw Slaughters acting for GIP, A&O advising the banks and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acting for BAA.

The refinancing has also handed roles to offshore firms Mourant Ozannes and Walkers, which advised on Jersey and Cayman Islands law
issues respectively.