EXPERTISE 

Sarah is a finance partner and is Head of our London office. She specialises in real estate finance and hotel finance and advises lenders and sponsors in both investment and development finance transactions across the full spectrum of real estate assets, including operational assets such as hotels, leisure and student housing.  Clients include UK and international banks and debt funds on the lending side and propcos, investment and asset managers, corporates and family offices on the sponsor side.  

Sarah is part of our Cross-Border Real Estate Group and works with sponsors from the Middle East investing into UK and European real estate, in respect of which, Sarah works on both conventional and Shariah-compliant debt and equity financing structures.

Sarah's recent experience includes:

  • advising Kamco Invest in relation to the conventional and Shariah-compliant funding of its acquisition of three Grade A UK regional offices in partnership with M7 Real Estate
  • acting for Bayerische Landesbank in relation to the increase in its debt facility to Supermarket Income REIT by £34.8m in connection with the acquisition of the Tesco Extra store in Newmarket, Suffolk for £61m by the REIT 
  • acting for a middle eastern bank in relation to an £85m investment facility to a middle eastern investor secured against a central London landmark hotel
  • acting for Qatar National Bank in relation to a murabaha financing of a West London BTR development for a Qatari sponsor
  • acting for a UK clearing bank in connection with the £33m financing of the acquisition of an interest in a large airport hotel  
  • acting for Puma Property Finance on a £12.5m facility to Rellish to finance the development of a 140-bedroom Hampton by Hilton hotel in Ashford, Kent   
  • acting for a middle eastern bank in connection with the £88m refinancing and refurbishment of a portfolio of properties (comprising office, retail and residential) in central London for a middle eastern family office 
Professional memberships
  • Law Society of England and Wales
  • Arab Bankers Association
Testimonials

"Sarah Egbu has a strong understanding of the client and the underlying commercial views, and she is able to clearly articulate both to us and to the other side any concerns we may have on a transaction" Legal 500 (2020)