Allen & Overy Paris has advised Credit Suisse First Boston, as
arranger of the e635 million Commercial Mortgage Backed Securitisation
on eight properties situated in the business district of La Défense
and in the centre of Paris. The transaction, known as “La Défense
III”, also represented the first French CMBS of this quarter.
The refinancing, which gave rise to a commercial mortgage backed loan
granted by Credit Suisse First Boston to eleven companies forming the
group SITQ (of which the principal sponsors were the Caisse des dépôts
et placements du Québec, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and
the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Real Estate), also
involved the establishment of a special purpose vehicle or fonds de
communs de créances – FCC La Défense III – and the issue by La Défense
III Plc of three new tranches of notes, listed on the Dublin Stock
Exchange with a single to triple A rating. This is a refinancing of
two earlier commercial mortgage backed transactions (La Défense Plc in
1997 and La Défense II Plc in 1999), Allen & Overy’s Paris office
having also advised Credit Suisse First Boston on the latter of these
two operations.
The transaction which was handled through the Paris office of Allen &
Overy, required a multidisciplinary team comprising finance, tax and
real estate specialists who advised Credit Suisse First Boston on both
the French and English law aspects. The operation was led in Paris by
partners Christophe Jacquemin and Dan Lauder1, assisted by Ami Atal,
Hervé Coindreau and Julien Roux. In London, the operation was
supported by partner Julian Tucker.
The group SITQ as sponsor, as well as the borrowers and the issuer,
were advised by Latham & Watkins.
Commenting on the operation, Christophe Jacquemin stated: “This
transaction was an extremely important one for Allen & Overy’s Paris office. Not only does it represent the first CMBS put in place in
France since the beginning of 2004, but it also demonstrates our local
capacity to handle an operation of this magnitude and to deal with
both French and English law aspects almost entirely out of the Paris
office”.
