Shearman, Hogan act for JLR while Sullivan acts for underwriters

Sullivan & Cromwell, Shearman & Sterling and Hogan Lovells have lined up on Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) first high-yield bond offering since it was taken over by Tata Motors in 2008, in a deal valued at £1bn.

The company – which appointed Hogan Lovells and Shearman as joint counsel on UK and US aspects respectively – will use the proceeds of the bond sale to refinance debt and to help develop new vehicles and technologies.

Shearman, which has a longstanding relationship with JLR parent company Tata, fielded a team led by London corporate partners Jacques McChesney and Apostolos Gkoutzinis. The latter was recently promoted to the firm's partnership after high-yield partner Ward McKimm departed for rival US law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Hogan Lovells, meanwhile, advised JLR on UK aspects of the deal with a City team headed up by corporate partner Andrew Taylor and including fellow corporate partners James Doyle and Richard Ufland.

The consortium of underwriters, which comprised JP Morgan, Citibank, Standard Chartered and Credit Suisse, instructed Sullivan, with the US law firm's team led by London co-managing partner Vanessa Blackmore and corporate partner Bill Plapinger.

Plapinger said: "A high-yield offering is always complicated, and combining it with a debut offering – as was the case with JLR – makes it even more so. There was a widespread belief that this large transaction was priced successfully based on significant over-demand for both the sterling and US dollar tranches of the offering."

He added: "While each of the underwriters are regular clients of Sullivan, our involvement for them in this particular matter resulted from our longstanding relationship with JLR's parent company Tata."