Hogan Lovells has advised a consortium of banks on the sale of First Engineering Limited (“First Engineering“) to Australia-based private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners (“Anchorage“), including advising Mizuho Corporate Bank, one of the selling banks, in connection with the financing being provided to Anchorage for the acquisition.
This transaction marks an exit for the selling banks, following a leveraged buyout of First Engineering by Affinity Equity Partners in 2007 and subsequent restructuring and debt-for-equity swap by the senior lenders in 2009. Hogan Lovells was the primary legal advisor in both transactions.
First Engineering is a leading precision plastics component manufacturer, serving blue-chip customers across the automotive, business machines, HDD, and medical sectors.
The Hogan Lovells team was led by Hong Kong-based partner Gary Hamp, and included associates Christine Li, Shantay Cong, Claire Fulton and Michael Wang who advised on the financing aspects of the transaction. Partner Allan Wardrop advised the existing lenders in their capacity as creditors. In Singapore, partner Stephanie Keen and associate Justin Tong advised the lending consortium in their capacity as sellers of the business.
Commenting on the transaction, head of the Hong Kong banking practice Gary Hamp said:
“This is the first transaction on which we have worked with Anchorage but marks the latest of a number of transactions on which we have advised Mizuho Corporate Bank on leveraged financings globally, helping to cement our relationship with them in the Asia ex-Japan markets.”
