Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Ed Borrini has joined the firm’s London office as a partner in its Global Real Estate Group and Finance Department. Mr. Borrini brings to the firm 20 years of experience representing lenders and borrowers in all aspects of banking transactions, with a particular emphasis on real estate finance and emerging markets deals. He joins Morrison & Foerster from Jones Day to build the London office’s real estate finance (REF) practice.
“I am delighted to start the year by welcoming Ed, the sixth lateral partner to join the London office in the last 12 months,” said Paul Friedman, Morrison & Foerster’s managing partner for Europe. “Ed’s arrival marks another major step forward in the growth of our real estate practice in London, following the establishment of a Private Equity Real Estate (PERE) capability in 2019. Ed’s addition also further strengthens our London finance practice, which has grown rapidly over the last two years, including through the additions of Chris Kandel, Caroline Jury, and Benoit Lavigne.”
Mr. Borrini’s practice focuses on real estate finance across a number of asset classes for both investment and development transactions. He represents clients in the hotels, care homes, business parks, retail, and residential sectors, amongst others. Mr. Borrini also advises clients on the financing of non-performing loan portfolio acquisitions and other event-driven transactions. His experience in emerging markets extends to all types of energy and commodity-related transactions, with a focus on Africa, CIS states, and Latin America.
“The real estate industry is a strategic focus of the firm and Ed’s practice aligns well with the needs of our global real estate-focused corporate, funds, lender, and private equity clients in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.,” said Mark Edelstein, chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Global Real Estate Group. “His arrival will generate strong synergies with our global real estate practice group.”
“Creating a REF practice in London will also help us capitalize on our existing relationships with our private equity real estate clients in Europe, not only to help with the debt finance aspects of the deals we are already acting on, but also because they are increasingly establishing their own debt funds and becoming alternative lenders in their own right,” added Oliver s’Jacob, the founding partner of Morrison & Foerster’s PERE practice in London.
Some of Mr. Borrini’s representative transactions include advising MARK (formerly Meyer Bergman) in its £400 million investment along with CC Land in the redevelopment of the Whiteleys shopping center in Queensway, London; UK-headquartered Cineworld Group PLC in connection with an asset monetization strategy in the U.S. involving a combined cash consideration of $556.3 million cinema sale-leaseback transactions to convert a substantial portion of Cineworld’s U.S. real estate holdings into cash; HighBrook Income Property Fund, LP in connection with its acquisition of Groothandelsgebouwen NV, the largest multi-tenanted property in the Netherlands; and U.S. Steel Kosice, s.r.o., a Slovak subsidiary of U.S. Steel Corporation, on the refinancing of a €460 million guaranteed senior multicurrency revolving credit facility agreement.
“I am excited to join Morrison & Foerster’s truly global Real Estate practice, which is an ideal platform for me and my clients,” said Mr. Borrini. “I look forward to joining a collaborative firm and identifying synergies with colleagues in London, continental Europe, the U.S., and Asia. I also look forward to helping further consolidate the firm’s growing finance capability in London, through my extensive debt and emerging markets experience in particular.”
Mr. Borrini is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales. He earned his LPC from the College of Law, Chester and holds an M.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University. Borrini is the fourth partner to join the firm’s European real estate practice in the past few years, following the arrivals of Florian Ehrich in Berlin, and Olivers’ Jacob and Luke Mines in London.
