Allens tops syndicated loans tables

Allens has been ranked the number one legal adviser in the Asia-Pacific for syndicated loans in 2014, according to the latest Bloomberg league tables.

Across the Bloomberg Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) loans lender and borrower legal tables, the firm worked on 66 deals worth US$58.3 billion and a market share of almost 10 per cent for deals. The firm was well ahead of the second-placed firm, which was more than US$21 billion behind.

Head of the firm's Banking & Finance practice group Nicky Lester said the result reflected the work the Allens team had done on the biggest syndicated loans deals in 2014, including the A$20 billion Westfield restructure, the A$7 billion corporate refinancing of Origin Energy, the financing of APA's A$6 billion acquisition of BG's QCLNG pipeline in Queensland and QIC's $7 billion sale of Queensland Motorways.

'The feedback we get from our clients and the wider market is that we are the go-to firm for the most significant and complex syndicated deals and this was borne out last year,' Mrs Lester said.

'In particular, our clients tell us that it is a combination of the breadth and depth of our team, as well as our commercial deal-driven approach that keeps them coming back.

'A particular strength of our practice is our work for lenders and borrowers across all sectors – we topped the borrower table in 2013 and the lenders table in 2014 – enabling us to be at the forefront of market precedent and practice. It is one of the key reasons borrower and lender clients seek us out.'

Mrs Lester said that in a market which saw loan volume increase across the Asia-Pacific (13 per cent up from previous year) and Australia (6 per cent up from previous year), Australian M&A activity, refinancings and project financing drove loan market activity in 2014.

'We expect that to continue in 2015 with a strong deal flow driven in part by increased activity in the infrastructure sector.'

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