The Firm’s banking and finance department pays constant attention to the new legislation and regulations issued and is particularly accomplished at being able to adapt standard common law documentation to solutions which are tailed to comply with the Italian legal system.

The Firm’s banking and finance clients consist of Italian, European and American banks and leading financial and commercial operators, which it advises on a wide range of domestic and cross-border financial transactions, providing constant support to its clients throughout all of the stages of the transaction – including the structuring, negotiation, drafting of the documentation and on-going advice during the course of the business relations.

The Firm specialises in the following banking and finance areas:

• Credit transactions. Real estate mortgage loans, mortgage finance, shipping finance, consumer credit – also in relation to the real estate sector – loans to venture capital companies and financing to private equity companies;
• Structured Finance. Securitisations, covered bonds, bond issues, derivatives. In particular, the Firm focuses on credit securitisations deriving from leasing agreements and mortgages, assisting the Issuer or the Originator in such type of transactions. It also advises on the issuance of bonds on regulated foreign markets, financing agreements, the structuring of security packages in global funding transactions by leading international banks, the issuing of collateral, bank guarantees and debt restructuring and debt management;
• Regulation of banking activities, compliance with the Supervisory Authority, particularly in relation to banking transparency;
• Real estate finance. Structured finance for the acquisition of real estate properties (even through sophisticated national and domestic leases) and management contracts and leases of such property;
• Trusts and fiduciary activities;
• Insurance law, bancassurance relations.

In such contexts, the Firm has assisted, inter alia,

• EBI – the European Investment Bank, acting as investor, in securitisation transactions of mortgage-backed securities originating from banks;
• Leading Italian banks in the negotiation and drafting of the contractual documentation relating to syndicated loans;
• A leading Italian bank, acting as Originator, in various securitisation transactions, some of which involved a warehouse structure, together with the renegotiation of previous transactions performed by its subsidiary;
• An Italian financial institution, acting as lender and guarantor, in a loan for the construction of a ship, the structuring of a security package, the drafting of the contractual documentation and the negotiation of a financing documents;
• Banks and financial institutes, acting as issuers, in the structuring and drafting of the documentation relating to the issuance of securities in EMTN programmes, listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, as well as the subsequent renewals;
• Primary lenders, acting as borrowers in repurchase agreements (REPO) or in relation to syndicated loans;
• The Italian subsidiary of a listed Dutch bank, acting as lender, in export financing transactions, covered by SACE guarantees;
• A leading Brazilian bank in the negotiation and legal assistance concerning guarantees frequently issued by the Italian parent company in favour of locally funded companies, as well as matters concerning the SACE coverage;
• An Italian bank in relation to legal disputes which arose following the sale of its subsidiary;
• A leading Italian industrial company, which it advised in relation to a loan with the European Investment Bank for the modernisation of an industrial plant in Croatia;
• A leading Italian infrastructure company in the renegotiation of a facility credit line;
• An Italian company operating in the steel sector in the negotiation of the partial repayment of a secured guaranteed deposit in London through a deed of charge following the partial enforcement of such guarantee;
• A leading Italian company, acting as General Contractor, in the negotiation with various lenders of facility and cash credit lines in relation to an acquisition of a subsidiary controlled by its partner in a joint venture established in the infrastructure sector.