Slaughters and A&O win top roles on £1.4bn Thomas Cook refinancing
Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) have won lead roles to advise on the £1.4bn refinancing of UK travel giant Thomas Cook.
May 17, 2012 at 07:03 PM
2 minute read
Firm duo lead as UK travel giant agrees £1.4bn lending package
Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy (A&O) have won lead roles to advise on the £1.4bn refinancing of UK travel giant Thomas Cook.
Slaughters is acting for Thomas Cook with a team led by corporate partner William Underhill (pictured) and finance partner Richard Levitt, alongside tax partners Gareth Miles and Sara Luder.
A&O is advising the underwriters led by London finance partner George Link. The lending consortium, which reportedly includes Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), has not been disclosed.
The deal has seen a £1.4bn financing package agreed between Thomas Cook and its lenders, with all of its current credit facilities extended until 31 May 2015 to allow the company more time to manage its debts.
The move comes after the holiday tour operator negotiated a £200m loan facility at the close of last year with a consortium of banks led by Barclays, HSBC, RBS and UniCredit.
Simmons & Simmons, Slaughters and A&O advised on the deal, with Simmons and Slaughters acting for the company and A&O for the banks. Simmons and A&O also advised on Thomas Cook's previous £2bn refinancing in 2010.
The refinancing has been necessitated by the travel company's recent struggles to turn around underperformance in its UK, Canada, France and Russia businesses. It is also currently negotiating a sale of around 18 aircraft for which shareholder approval is expected this month.
The news follows a host of refinancings in Europe in recent months amid the tough economic climate, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hogan Lovells taking lead roles on the €1.1bn (£906m) refinancing of DUKE Real Estate in April this year.
Related: Freshfields, A&O, Simpson Thacher win roles on £1.2bn Center Parcs refinancing.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
Kirkland, Macfarlanes Act as Evelyn Partners Offloads £700M Professional Services Arm
2 minute read
Elon Musk Taps UK Top 50 Firm for London Launch of AI Business
Trending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
