James Seddon

Since joining Kirkland, James has been involved in the following matters:

• Morrisons and its shareholder Clayton, Dubilier & Rice on entering into an agreement to sell petrol forecourts to MFG and take a minority stake
• Financial creditors of Celsa Group on the first Spanish restructuring plan
• Brookfield on the recapitalization of Schoeller Allibert
• Brookfield on a series of real estate financings for its Befimmo (Belgium) and Hibernia (Irish) office portfolios, raising approximately €2 billion
• Hipgnosis Songs Capital on its proposed acquisition of 29 music catalogs from SONG
• Flint Group on its €1.3 billion recapitalization
• IDEMIA Group on the amendment and extension of its revolving credit facility and cross-border TLB facilities
• A consortium led by Sandbrook Capital on the acquisition of NeXtWind Capital
• Sandbrook Capital on the equity commitment in Voltwise Power
• Bristow Group in its entry into new term loan facilities
• Sandbrook Capital on the $500 million Partnership with PSP Investments to Fund Havfram
• Altera Infrastructure L.P. in pre-arranged Chapter 11 cases filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas
• Silversmith Capital Partners on the $55 million growth investment in Gearset 
• Brookfield on the sale of Student Roost to a joint venture formed between GIC and Greystar 
• G.S. Precision, a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners, on the acquisition of F.T. Gearing Systems 
• Oakley Capital on the acquisition of a majority stake in TechInsights by Oakley Capital IV, alongside CVC Growth
• EW Healthcare Partners and other shareholders on the €750 million sale of EUSA Pharma to Recordati
• Blackstone in its $1 billion partnership with Hipgnosis Song Management

Prior to joining Kirkland, James’ experience included the following matters:

• Otto Group on the partnership with Advent International for Hermes UK and Hermes Germany
• Avianca, OneWeb and SeaDrill Chapter 11s
• Piraeus Bank on the carve-out of its €27.3 billion NPL portfolio and sale of a majority stake in its non-performing exposures servicing unit to Intrum
• Ad hoc group of PIK noteholders in connection with the sale of Young’s Seafood
• Senior old money committee on the restructuring of Abengoa
• Del Monte Pacific on the part disposal of its Philippines business
• Infrastructure private equity fund on the disposal of its LatAm renewables portfolio to a Chinese SOE
• M&G Investments on aviation fund investment and strategic partnership with SKY Leasing
• Transatlantic metallurgy group in its restructuring and recapitalisation
• Private investment group on the spin-out of its private equity impact investment arm
• Rolling stock leasing group on various structuring and corporate transactions
• Sovereign investment fund in its investment in various UK development projects
• Infrastructure groups on various UK development and infrastructure projects
• Connect Plus (25), the M25 project company, in its £1.28 billion refinancing
• AVEVA Group in its £1.7 billion combination with Schneider Electric’s industrial software business and return of value to its shareholders
• BGC Partners in its acquisitions of Besso Insurance Group and Ed Broking in, respectively
• Numerous investment managers, including Bain Capital, ICG, King Street, Natixis, Oak Hill, Oaktree and PineBridge, and arrangers on CLO and related transactions since the advent of ‘CLO 2.0s’
• UK insurance services group on the successful defence of its VAT arrangements
• Barclays, Numis, Peel Hunt and Berenberg as the underwriting syndicate on the £575 million IPO of Sabre Insurance Group
• Punter Southall Group on the disposal of its actuarial, investment consulting and pensions administration businesses to Xafinity
• Abertis on the €495 million investment in its Chilean toll road business by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
• Punter Southall Group on the merger of P-Solve with River and Mercantile and acting for the newly-formed River and Mercantile Group in its subsequent IPO
• Hypothekenbank Frankfurt A.G. (formerly Commerzbank’s Eurohypo business) on the disposal of its €5 billion UK commercial real estate portfolio and London branch operations to Wells Fargo and Lone Star

Milbank, London

• Associate, 2018–2021

Ashurst LLP, London

• Senior Associate, 2016–2018
• Associate, 2012–2016
• Trainee Solicitor, 2010–2012