Macfarlanes, Kirkland & Ellis and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken leading roles on Legal Week publisher Incisive Media's refinancing, which will hand private equity firm Alchemy a majority stake in the business.

The business media publisher agreed a new capital structure with Alchemy and other lenders, in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet and decrease net debt, with cash pay debt reduced from £110m to £25m.

Former lender Royal Bank of Scotland, which took over the company following a debt for equity swap in 2009, is no longer involved as a lender or shareholder, having sold its stake to Alchemy in May last year. HIG credit arm Bayside, Permira-managed Legico and Bank of Ireland also become stakeholders as part of the deal. Incisive's management will retain a stake.

The deal – which had been in the works for around a year – will significantly cut interest payments for Incisive, which also publishes titles including Risk, Accountancy Age and Professional Pensions.

According to Incisive private equity title unquote, Alchemy has invested in Incisive since November 2013. The publishing company was taken private by Apax in 2006, with Apax providing an equity investment of around £100m for around a 61% stake in the company. 

Macfarlanes is acting for Incisive on the restructuring as well as Alchemy on equity matters, with a Chinese wall separating the two teams to avoid conflicts. Debt finance partner Jat Bains leads the team for Incisive, while a separate team headed by Simon Perry is advising Alchemy.

Alchemy is also instructing Freshfields on financing arrangements, with a team headed by finance partner Jeff O'Dea.

The magic circle firm is additionally advising RBS as facility agent with a separate team headed up by finance partner Michael Steele.

Kirkland meanwhile is advising several of the syndicate lenders on the restructuring, which fielded a team including City restructuring partner Partha Kar.

Incisive Media executive chairman and chief executive Tim Weller (pictured) said: "This is great news for the ongoing development of our company. The strong financial platform and supportive majority shareholder in the form of Alchemy will give us the ability to invest in the business, both in our people and our brands."

Macfarlanes, which frequently advises Incisive, previously acted for the business media publisher when it was sold to private equity house Apax Venture Capital for £199m in 2006. It also represented Incisive when it bought the remaining stake in Legal Week for £5.7m  the previous year and on the £35.2m acquisition of Risk Waters Group in 2003.