Meet Henry
Prior to joining Lawrence Stephens I developed finance experience and commercial acumen across a variety of deals in the West-End and Top 200 Law Firms and spent time in house at a property development group. I bring a pragmatic and versatile approach to clients and take a long-term view of relationships.
I have a strong technical focus and have regularly acted for both upcoming and established lenders on product launches, standard template documentation and ‘special situations’. I am experienced in a range of transactions with particular familiarity with loan-on-loan arrangements, peer-to-peer structures, syndicated loans and mezzanine financing. I am happy to deal with non-standard situations where robust advice and urgent action is required to reach the best result.
The real-estate transactions I have worked on include lending to major hotel groups, ‘ground up’ and airspace development, purpose built student accommodation, service stations and care homes. Broader clients include IVF clinics, independent car manufacturers, music studios and car wholesale groups.
I value a commercial and outcome focused attitude to transactions, taking into account the broader needs of parties and adopting a collaborative approach where possible. My experience in house assists in understanding and anticipating what my clients need and ensuring that advice is clear, timely and jargon-free.
Outside of work I enjoy golf, live music, history and good food.
Experience highlights
- Acting for a major alternative lender on a £65m refinance of student accommodation.
- Acting for a challenger bank on a £15m loan-on-loan arrangement for a hotel development.
- Advising an established bank on their participation in a £700m master platform agreement for care home funding and loan purchase arrangements.
- Acting for a borrower on a £50m revolving credit facility with a high-street bank.
- Advising a corporate lender on a £30m secured loan facility to a distressed borrower.
- Reviewing and revising standard lending documentation for a national buy-to-let lender prior to syndication.
- Acting for a specialist lender in relation to a £1.9m mezzanine loan across a four block development site with two senior lenders with a transactional timeframe of one week from instruction to completion.
- Negotiating an intercreditor agreement between an alternative lender and the Greater London Authority.
- Advising on the launch of a new development finance lender, advising on regulatory requirements, operations, funding structure, drafting standard transactional documents and acting on subsequent senior and mezzanine transactions.
