Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters and Mills & Reeve have advised on a £600m bond issue by Cambridge University, in the latest example of a university tapping the bond markets to raise funds for investment.

The proceeds of the bond – which is linked to the consumer price index (CPI) rather than the retail price index (RPI) as a measure of inflation – will be used by the university to invest in the university's revenue-generating projects and other facilities.

CC and Mills & Reeve provided joint legal advice to the university, with CC's team led by capital markets partner and former London head David Bickerton and tax partner Chris Davies, alongside a Mills & Reeve team headed up by banking and finance partner Sarah Seed.

Linklaters capital markets partner Elaine Keats and managing associate Mark Longworth advised the joint lead managers on the issuance – Barclays, HSBC and Morgan Stanley.

Bickerton and Seed also advised the university in 2012 when it took out a £350m 40-year bond. Mills & Reeve capital markets partner Stephen Hamilton advised on university matters on that deal, while Linklaters capital markets partner Nigel Pridmore and tax partner Dominic Winter acted for the banks.

In December 2017, Linklaters advised Oxford University on the first-ever 100-year bond, which raised £750m. CC acted for the lead manager on the deal.

CC and Mills & Reeve also took lead roles on Cardiff University's £300m public bond issue in 2016, while Pinsent Masons, Morrison & Foerster and Greenberg Traurig advised when the London School of Economics and Political Science took out a £125m bond in 2013.