Ogier has strengthened its funds practices in the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg with three partner promotions.
Funds specialists Justin Savage and Anne-Gaëlle Delabye have both been promoted to partner in the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg respectively, while fund finance lawyer Mark Santangeli has been promoted to partner in the Cayman Islands.
Savage, who joined Ogier in 2013, advises some of the firm’s largest investment fund clients on the full life-cycle of open-ended and closed-ended investment funds and private equity structures.
He has also played a leading role in the firm’s cross-jurisdiction innovation strategy which last week saw Ogier win the international category in Legal Week’s Innovation Awards.
Savage practiced in London and in Tokyo before joining Ogier, and also has extensive experience of advising clients on a broad range of cross-jurisdictional corporate transactions, including restructurings and mergers and acquisitions.
James Bergstrom, the Practice Partner of Ogier’s Cayman team, says: “We are delighted that Justin has joined the partnership – he has made a mark on the firm as a first-class investment funds lawyer with a proactive approach to the firm’s wider innovation agenda and to keeping clients fully briefed on regulatory changes.
“Justin’s promotion reflects not just his technical skills and expertise as a lawyer, but also his leadership qualities and client relationship skills.”
Justin joins Cayman specialist investment funds partners James Bergstrom, Giorgio Subiotto, Nick Rogers and Joanne Huckle, and Cayman-qualified Piers Dryden who leads Ogier’s Cayman offering in Europe from Jersey.
Delabye has been advising clients, mainly credit institutions and major international asset managers, on the structuring, formation and reorganisation of Luxembourg regulated and unregulated investment vehicles for more than 12 years.
Her practice encompasses a broad range of alternative investment funds (with a focus on private equity, real estate and debt strategies) as well as UCITS.
She also advises Ogier’s clients on various regulatory matters.
Ogier’s Luxembourg practice partner Francois Pfister, says: “Anne-Gaëlle has a very strong background in both alternative funds and UCITS. She has worked with many different client profiles and is a commercially and pragmatically minded lawyer. She is an indispensable addition to the team.”
Having spent time living in Hong Kong, Anne-Gaëlle has a particularly good knowledge of the Chinese market and will speak at a forthcoming Hong Kong seminar where the panel will consider “Luxembourg alternative investment funds for Asian initiators – a practical guide”.
Named as a leading lawyer by IFLR for successive years, one of Santangeli’s clients describes him as “operating like a top-notch New York lawyer”.
Ogier’s global head of banking and finance, Angus Davison, says: “Mark has a formidable reputation in the Cayman finance market and, in particular, is known for his expertise in fund finance, asset finance and structured finance. As well as being technically strong, Mark is also highly responsive, commercial and pragmatic.”
With a specialist team comprised of four partners and six associates, Ogier’s Cayman-based banking and finance service line has grown significantly in the past three years and is one of the strongest in the Caribbean.
Santangeli has a wealth of experience in representing both borrowers and lenders – including major financial institutions, multilateral international financial institutions, private equity and hedge funds – in all types of lending products. In the context of corporate financings, he regularly acts for large bank syndicates and large corporate multinationals.
His structured finance practice began in his previous role in-house at Bank of Scotland Corporate where he advised extensively on CMBS and conduit-based securitisation. Santangeli continues to advise on a variety of structured finance transactions including CLOs, securitisation and other types of bespoke structures.
His wide experience in asset finance includes aviation and shipping finance matters. In addition, Santangeli has extensive expertise in advising on debt capital market transactions including structured note offerings and debt listings on the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange.
Santangeli works with cross-jurisdictional teams, notably on a recent transaction in which a team from Ogier’s Cayman and Jersey offices advised on the establishment of a Shariah-compliant investment structure devised for the acquisition of Greyhound Retail Park Phase II, Chester in the UK. Greyhound is a dominant, multi-led retail park housing major UK retail chains such as Asda and John Lewis.
Santangeli will be at ABS Barcelona from 4 June, with partners from Ogier’s global structured finance team: Simon Felton from Jersey, Laurent Thailly from Luxembourg and Anthony Oakes from Hong Kong.
