The comments were made by judges at The Lawyer Awards 2014 at which the Mills & Reeve banking team was runner-up in the Finance Team of the Year category. According to the judges, the colleges secured access to a wider investor base than they would have achieved on an individual basis, yet are reaping the rewards of sharing costs across the group, thanks to Mills & Reeve’s innovative approach to the financing.
The successful aggregated bond placement follows the launch of a £350 million public bond issue by the University of Cambridge in October 2012 and a £300 million public bond issue by the University of Manchester in July 2013, both of which Mills & Reeve worked closely in collaboration with Clifford Chance on.
Sarah Seed, banking partner, said: "We were clearly delighted with these comments which further strengthen our market-leading reputation in the area of alternative financing for the not-for-profit sector. We have recently advised a boarding school on the first ever bond issued by an independent school so we are continually breaking new ground.”
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