Edward Sunderland
A director in the Asset Finance team, with particular expertise on receivables financing, securitisation, capital markets and derivatives. I work for both lenders and borrowers, cross-border and national, refinancings and acquisitions, both large and small.
Tel: +44 (0)870 733 0597
Email: edward_sunderland@wragge.com
Services: Finance
Business sectors: Financial Services
Best brains in ...
Cross-border deal structuring, capital markets, complex transaction management.
Highlight of your career so far?
Advising Birmingham City Council on its £215 million bond issue last year. It was the first ever issue by a local authority under recent legislation, and it was exciting to be at the cutting edge of capital markets work.
Most challenging job you've ever done?
Assisting BUPA in partially unwinding a complex whole-business securitisation of some of its hospitals, in order to allow a sale of the hospitals. Anticipating all possible issues - in particular tax - and addressing the resulting concerns of the trustee satisfactorily proved to be technically very challenging - but ultimately very enjoyable.
What about outside the UK?
I advised the Orey Group, a Portugese-based financial conglomerate, on structuring and arranging a Euro-denominated bond issue by its Dutch-based subsidiaries, Orey 7 BV. The deal was asset-backed by a Brazilian investment fund. Addressing all the competing concerns from counter-party risk to tax across England Portugal, the Netherlands, the Cayman Islands and Brazeil was technically challenging but ultimately achievable.
What's your definition of going the extra mile?
Spending forty-eight sleepless hours immediately prior to completion preparing more than 70 different financial assistance statutory declarations to enable 3i to fund the acquisition of Hayley Conference Centres.
Best example of a creative legal solution?
Working with German lawyers, we found a way to get around the restrictive capital maintenance regime in Germany by proposing an upstream merger - rather than an acquisition - which allowed a deal to proceed.
When have you ever given a client a real competitive edge?
We have acted for both GE Commercial Finance and Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance in funding public to private acquisitions. Funding of this nature is uncommon in the Asset Based Lending market, and our expertise in public to private transactions gave the clients the ability to win - and fund - the deals.
What's been written or said about you that you're most proud of?
After completing a large multi-million pound transaction for GE Commercial Finance, its General Counsel said: 'We could not have asked for a better service. The performance and technical expertise was of Magic Circle quality but with a refreshing personal touch'.
