London, 27 May 2008 – LawFuel – Law Firm Newswire – Baker & McKenzie LLP has advised UBS Limited as sole arranger and lead manager on the €800 million securitisation of a portfolio of Piraeus Bank’s residential mortgages.
The originator was Piraeus Bank, the flagship company within the Piraeus Group, the fourth largest banking group in Greece. As at 31 December 2007, Piraeus Group’s assets totalled €46.4 billion with a 14.2% market share in terms of loans among all commerical banks in Greece.
Commenting on the transaction, Vincent Keaveny, structured capital markets partner at Baker & McKenzie, said: ”This is the second Greek mortgage-backed deal we have undertaken for lead managers UBS. The transaction demonstrates our continuing expertise in acting on Greek securitisations and the strength of our relationship with UBS.”
The Baker & McKenzie structured capital markets team have already experienced an outstanding 2008. In April, it advised the Royal Bank of Scotland plc as Arranger on the Driver UK One plc £215 million and €324.9 million trade receivables securitisation for Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited, widely regarded as one of the most important asset-backed deal to be closed in the current market climate. It was the first public securitisation for Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Limited in the UK and is one of the few public European ABS transactions completed to date in 2008 (the first public deal of this year being Volkswagen’s Driver Five securitisation of German auto loans, on which Baker & McKenzie’s Frankfurt office advised).
The Baker & McKenzie team was led by Vincent Keaveny, and included associates Jeremy Levy and Mariana Pereira Capucho, and trainees Nick Wloch and Natasha Izmaylova. Tax advice was provide by partner James MacLachlan and associate James Wilson.
Kyriakides Georgopoulos & Daniolos Issaias provided advice to UBS Limited on Greek law matters.
