Expertise

As a member of our Finance and Projects Group, Geoff specialises in non-contentious transactional finance work.  He has a particular focus on social and affordable housing finance.

Geoff has been recognised by the Legal 500 as a "Rising Star" for both Social Housing Finance in London and for Banking and Finance generally in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Recent transactions in which Geoff has led large AG deal teams include advising:

• on several separate deals specifically involving loans linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics including through utilising targets for borrowers to increase employment within their group, improve energy efficiency within their property portfolios and enrolling tenants on training programmes (including acting for BNP Paribas on the first such deals in the housing sector in 2018/2019);
• Barclays, RBS, Nationwide, Santander, Lloyds and Legal & General on a circa £700m restructuring of loan facilities to the Jigsaw Homes Group which included the establishment of a treasury vehicle structure with 5 housing association guarantors, conversions of certain members of the Group from companies to community benefit societies and the splitting up of existing syndicated loans to be replaced with cross guaranteed secured loan agreements for each lender into the newly established treasury vehicle SPV;
• AIB, Lloyds, Natwest and Santander on the £365m refinance of facilities in place with Wrekin Housing Group which included a syndicate split and simultaneous bond issue alongside the refinance of all existing loan agreements;
• Nationwide, Barclays and RBS on the complex multi-stage group consolidations and subsequent merger of Radian Group and Yarlington Housing Group and the associated refinance of all existing loan facilities (including splitting a syndicated loan into separate bilateral arrangements).
• RBS and Santander on the complex split of an existing syndicate and £500m refinance of loans in place with Wakefield & District Housing by way of separate bilateral arrangements, including arranging bespoke completion mechanics addressing a two stage restructure of existing security trust structures required to exit an existing secured lender.