Our experienced team of lawyers regularly prepare and advise both lenders and clients on all types of finance documents, including:

• Interest only and/or capital repayment facility agreements for term loans, revolving facilities and development funding

• Side letters, amendment agreements and deeds of novation for existing facilities

• The full range of security documents (including first party and third party legal charges, debentures, personal guarantees, cross-company guarantees, charges over shares and assignment of life policies)

• Deeds of priority and Inter-creditor deeds (to regulate the priority of security in favour of more than one lender) and Deeds of Subordination (for unsecured debt)

• Board minutes and shareholder resolutions to ensure compliance with the Companies Act 2006 (particularly for substantial property transactions, companies guaranteeing loans to directors and commercial benefit for cross-company guarantees)

• Deeds of Release (where security is to be discharged) and Deeds of Confirmation (where security is to remain after a variation to the loan terms); and

• Collateral warranties on development deals

Examples of recent work in this area include:

• Drafting, negotiating and agreeing a development facility (part repayment, part interest-only) to a residential developer. We put in place a new debenture and legal charge over the site as well as two Deeds of Subordination for directors’ and inter-company loans.

• Drafting the facility agreement and security documents for a new loan to a trading business. We also prepared a Deed of Release for a current debenture and an Inter-creditor Deed with a third-party lender.

• Advising the bank on the terms of:
  • A Deed of Priority where a non-CML lender was taking a second debenture;
  • Amendments to the Bank’s facility letter requested by the other lender; and a Cure Agreement (the proposed terms of which could have been prejudicial to the bank). We secured significant amendments to the Cure Agreement to protect the Bank’s position and ensure that the terms were not unduly onerous.