Michael Blau

About Michael Blau

Michael is a member of the Global Transactions team in the Freshfields London office, specialising in Leveraged Finance.

He advises private equity sponsors, financial institutions and borrowers on leveraged finance acquisitions and refinancings, as well as a wide range of other finance matters, including investment grade and real estate financings and restructurings.

Recent work

• Advising AEA on the first and second lien financing supporting its acquisition of the Polygon Group from Triton;
• Advising CVC on the unitranche financing supporting their acquisition of System C;
• Advising Entain plc on the refinancing of its existing $1.125bn term loan B and £590m revolving credit facility;
• Advising AEA and the Sparrows Group on its Nordic bond and ssRCF refinancing;
• Advising HSBC and Barclays on the restructuring and subsequent refinancing of their £470m margin loan to Global City Theatres;
• Advising a major sovereign wealth fund in connection with its private loan to a leading ‘insuretech’ business;
• Advising Bain and Cinven on the €2.4 billion equivalent financing for their acquisition of Lonza Specialty Ingredients;
• Advising JP Morgan and Banco Santander on the refinancing of the Aernnova Group;
• Advising JAB on the financing for its purchase of Pret a Manger from Bridgepoint;
• Advising Cinven on the financing for a number of European acquisitions, including Inseec U and One.com, on the refinancing of the Pronet Group and on a number of confidential bids in Europe;
• Advising Goldman Sachs on the refinancing of the Masmovil Group;
• Advising Apollo on its financing of Seguradoras Unidas, a Portuguese insurance company, and its subsequent sale to Generali;
• Advising CVC on a number of leveraged financing transactions, including the first and second lien financings supporting its acquisitions of WebPros from Oakley Capital and Ontic from BBA Aviation, and the term loan B acquisition financings of the Tipico Group, the QA Group and Etraveli and on a number of confidential bids in Europe;
• Advising Permira Debt Managers on a number of private direct lending transactions, including the refinancing of TwinSet, the acquisition financings of Dunlop Aircraft Tyres and Clean Laundry and the financings of ALcontrol and David Brown Systems; and
• Advising Cinven and Spire Healthcare on the IPO refinancing of the Spire Healthcare Group.