

Sebastian FitzGerald
Partner, Finance
Seb FitzGerald is a partner in Willkie’s Corporate & Financial Services Department and Finance Department in London. He has extensive experience in complex cross-border financings across a variety of sectors and credit products, focusing on leveraged buyouts, direct lending, restructurings and special situations investing. He has acted for a number of leading private equity sponsors and financial investors, corporates and creditors in the US and European financing markets including Cinven, CVC, Advent, BC Partners, Blackstone, TPG, Montagu, KKR, PAI Partners, Eurazeo, Silver Lake, Insight Partners and Goldman Sachs.
Seb is widely known in the private equity and leveraged finance markets for his commercial and collaborative approach. He is recognised as a "Notable practitioner" by Chambers UK (2023) for Banking & Finance, as "Highly Regarded" by IFLR1000 (2023) for Banking, and as a leading "Next Generation Partner" in The Legal 500 UK (2023) for Acquisition Finance. He is praised by clients as "pragmatic and technical ", "extremely professional, bright and commercial" and "a commanding banking partner in charge of the execution process of very complex transactions".
Experience
Prior to joining Willkie, Sebastian was a member of the London Finance Practice at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
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Cooper Consumer Health, a portfolio company of CVC Capital Partners, in its proposed acquisition of Viatris’ Over-the-Counter business
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STARK Group on the acquisition of Saint-Gobain Building Distribution Ltd
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Stanley Capital in its acquisition of French pharmaceutical group Laboratoire XO
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CVC Capital Partners on portfolio company Cooper Consumer Health’s acquisition of Lashilé Beauty
- CVC Capital Partners, through its CVC Capital Partners Fund VII, on its announced acquisition of a majority stake in Cooper Consumer Health from Charterhouse Capital Partners
- Stanley Capital on its acquisition of global specialty pharmaceutical company, Noden Pharma DAC
- CVC on the acquisition of Bosch's packaging technology business unit, one of the leading suppliers of process and packaging technology
- PAI Partners in its agreement to acquire StellaGroup, a market leader in the production of doors, gates, shutters and enclosures for industrial and residential buildings in France, from ICG
- Minor International in its acquisition of the Corbin & King restaurant group
- Davidson Kempner Capital Management on a confidential investment in the energy sector
- PAI Partners in its investment in Refresco, the Dutch-listed leading independent bottler of soft drinks and fruit juices
- CVC on the financing aspects of its acquisition of Sebia from Astorg and Montagu
- PAI Partners on the €520 million refinancing of Labeyrie Fine Foods and redemption of its senior secured notes
- Eurazeo on the financing for its €405 million acquisition of Iberchem
- Constantia Flexibles on the financing aspects of its $1.3 billion sale of its Labels division to Multi-Color Corporation
- Premier Oil’s convertible bondholders on the group’s $2.8 billion restructuring
- Parallels Holdings on the financing aspects of its sale of Plesk to Oakley Capital for $105 million
- Ardian on the €447 million financing for its acquisition of SLV from Cinven
- Insight Venture Partners on various confidential investment opportunities and other portfolio matters
- Lead arrangers on the financing supporting Partners Group's acquisition of Vermaat Group*
- Arclight Capital Partners and North Sea Midstream Partners on their acquisition of Total's interests in the Frigg natural gas pipeline, the St. Fergus Gas Terminal and the SIRGES gas pipeline for approximately $900 million*
- CVC Capital Partners on the $550 million & €200 million 1st lien and $200 million and €35 million 2nd lien NY law financing for its acquisition of the Linxens group from Astorg Partners*
- Montagu Private Equity on various confidential investment opportunities in Europe and the United States*
- Tesco on the financing aspects of its £4.2 billion sale of its Korean business, Homeplus, to a group of investors led by MKB Partners, the largest sale to private equity to date in Korea*
- TPG Special Situations Partners & Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Partners on the financing for their highly complex acquisition of Kensington, the specialty UK residential mortgage lender, from Investec plc. involving five separate financings, and on various other confidential investment opportunities*
- Foster Wheeler on the financing aspects of its $8.5 billion mixed cash and stock business combination with AMEC plc*
- BC Partners on the cov-lite €500 million 1st lien and €155 million 2nd lien facilities for the refinancing of Aenova*
- Cinven on the cov-lite facilities supporting its acquisition of Gas Natural Fenosa Telecommunicaciones*
- Blackstone Real Estate Partners on its acquisition of the €1.8 billion Project Tower loan portfolio from National Asset Management Agency of Ireland*
- Silver Lake Partners on various confidential investment opportunities in Europe and Asia*
- M&G on the approximately £300 million financing of a housing business and on various confidential credit opportunities*
- Cinven on its acquisition of Host Europe Group from Montagu, financing for the separate subsequent acquisitions of TOS (web hosting subsidiary of Telefonica), domainfactory and intergenia Holding GmbH and the approximately €535 million 1st/2nd lien refinancing of its facilities*
- CVC Capital Partners and KKR on the approximately €1.7 billion financing of the Van Gansewinkel Group*
- Cinven throughout its investment in Spire Healthcare hospital group, including the approximately €1.2 billion opco- propco refinancing of the group, the subsequent sale of a portfolio of hospitals to Malaysia's Employees Provident Fund; Och Ziff Capital Management and Moor Park Capital and partial refinancing of its loan facilities and preparation for Spire's subsequent IPO*
- Security trustee on the approximately £1 billion financial and operational restructuring of Travelodge*
- Advent on various matters including the €740 million facilities supporting the take-private of Mediq and subsequent recapitalization facilities*
- Boparan's public takeover of Northern Foods plc (£400 million and €340 million senior secured notes and super senior RCF) *
- Rhone Capital and Triton Partners' acquisition of Evonik Carbon Black (€355 million and $350 million senior secured notes and $250 million super senior RCF) *
- BC Partners' acquisition of Phones4U (£430 million senior secured notes and £125 million super senior RCF)*
- GIC on various junior lending real estate opportunities in Europe*
- Senior lender steering committee on the restructuring of the VCST Group's senior / mezzanine LBO facilities*
- Cinven on its take-private of Spice plc (subsequently Enserve Group)*
- CVC Capital Partners on the approximately €2.5 billion facility for its acquisition of a stake in Abertis Infraestructuras*
- BC Partners and Cinven on the approximately €3.2 billion facilities in relation to the IPO of Amadeus*
- “Red Knights” on their potential acquisition of Manchester United Football Club*
- Cinven on certain financing arrangements relating to the Phadia Group*
- Lord Kirkham on the PIK financing for the sale of the DFS group to Advent International*
- Cinven on its acquisition of the Classic Hospitals group*
- Lehman Brothers and Starwood Capital on the highly complex restructuring and recapitalization of the Le Meridien hotels group involving separate financings in five jurisdictions*
* Sebastian advised on these matters prior to joining Willkie.
Credentials
Education
BPP Law School of London, LPC Balliol College, Oxford, (Scholarship)