IFLR1000

• Banking & Finance
• Corporate/M&A
• Insolvency & Restructurering

Banking & Finance
AKD has been working hard to occupy a bigger space in banking. The firm is in the process of moving into to more beneficially placed office in Amsterdam (for which it will share a building with Deloitte) and it has been marketing to international banks and US companies.

AKD, which has four offices in the Netherlands, was engaged on some notable referrals and in fact it was referrals, the most recent of which in January 2011 when Vincent Bettonville led a team to act as Dutch counsel to Jones Day for Exide Technology on a €200 million credit facility from a syndicate of banks led by Wells Fargo Capital Finance.

Another notable deal saw closed in November 2010 when Bettonville worked with Travers Smith to advise Benson Elliot Capital Management on a €100 million loan from a syndicate of banks led by Bank of America and Sumitomo Mitsubishi. Other referrals were won from Macfarlanes and Foley & Lardner on high value revolving and syndicated facilities for JDR Cable Systems and A.O. Smith from international banks among them HSBC and Wells Fargo Bank, respectively.

The firm's most standout deal as lead counsel saw Bettonville acted for STMicroelectronics on a €350 million financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Capital Markets
Capital markets is not the particular strength of AKD however it did clock in at least one good deal last year working as local counsel. In January 2011 the firm, led by Vincent Bettonville, acted as Dutch counsel to Jones Day for Exide Technology on an issuance of senior secured notes. The notes totalled €675 million and are due in 2018.

Corporate/M&A

Dutch independent AKD is on the move. The firm is poised to take up new premises in Amsterdam in a building it will share with Deloitte, with which it has a good relationship, and in 2010 the corporate team hired four additional partners (including former Loyens & Loeff and Clifford Chance lawyers) and eight associates.

"They are good at the heavy legal work, a very solid firm with a detailed and thorough approach," says one client, while the Deloitte connection is attractive to others: "they know how to find international contacts and the Deloitte network could be very useful if necessary".

The firm has been aiming to rise above its regional profile and target international clients, US and German companies, and private equity. Its Rotterdam office also gives is a useful shipping profile, while its Eindhoven office has industry contact with clients including Philips.

In its most standout deals, Matthijs Ingen-Housz led a team to advise Beins Travel Group, shareholder of Cheaptickets, on the latter's merger with BCD's online travel agency Vliegwinkel, Budgetair and Vayama.

In December 2010 new Loyens & Loeff partner recruit Heimon Smits and Vincent Bettonville advised on the Dutch aspects of Dong Energy's sale of a 24.8% stake in Walney offshore wind farms to a consortium comprising PGGM and Dutch Ampére Equity Fund.

Erwin Rademakers, Stefan Bais and Monique Verkuilen advised ABN AMRO Participaties, Friesland Bank Investments and the management of Triade Holding on takeover by Tech Data for €145 million in October 2010, while in May Carlos Pita Cao closed Grindrod Group's takeover of ABC Group.

Insolvency & Restructurering

AKD has one of the biggest pools of restructuring and insolvency lawyers in the country spread over three Dutch offices in Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam. Many of the lawyers also specialise in corporate, M&A, real estate and construction. The group earns its ranking especially for insolvency work. According to one bankruptcy client it is "a very solid firm with a detailed and thorough approach". The firm also acts as trustee on bankruptcy cases.

In the firm's biggest case in 2010, Barend de Roy van Zuidewijn acted as trustee in the bankruptcy of Reggehuys Management and CEG Holding. Projects and real estate company CEG has assets of €1 billion in 2007 throughout a hundred subsidiaries in Eastern Europe and suffered major bankruptcies in Lithuania and Latvia. The firm's efforts were to secure certain assets of CEG.

The firm was also advising building company Akar in negotiations with Rabobank, which decided to discontinue credit to the company following its insolvency. Akar was then taken over by its management. Paul Peters also led a team to advise GMAC RFC on restructuring and affiliates. A last standout deal saw the firm act for Deutsche Bank on the enforcement of security rights by the European China Trade Centre which could not fulfil its obligations and went into bankruptcy.

Elsewhere, Marc Goethals has been busy advising real estate clients, and the firm picked up some mandates connected to the bankruptcy of the Kroymans Group.