About Laila
Laila De Melo is a Special Counsel practising in banking and finance law advising a variety of banking, corporate and private equity clients. She has a particular focus on restructuring, leveraged finance, syndicated lending, property finance and project finance.
Laila graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts with honours and a Bachelor of Laws with honours and was admitted to practice in 2003.
Practice focus
Laila’s practice focuses on the following areas:
- restructurings, acting for major corporates and insolvency officials;
- leveraged finance, including acting for sponsors and financing banks in connection with leveraged buyouts, recapitalisations and debt restructurings;
- syndicated lending, including documenting large corporate working capital and acquisition facilities, negotiating mezzanine finance arrangements and structuring property development financings;
- property finance, including acting for borrowers in connection with acquisition, development and investment facilities and negotiating and documenting joint venture arrangements; and
- project finance, including acting for sponsors in connection with structuring the relevant financing arrangements, negotiating mezzanine finance arrangements and acting for senior financing banks.
Experience
Laila has acted for a range of major Australian and international corporations and private clients, including on behalf of:
- Barana Group and Toga Group: in relation to a structured transaction for the development of The Vibe Hotel in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney;
- Apollo Management and Oaktree Capital: in relation to the A$3.8 billion Nine Entertainment restructuring, including new A$800 million debt facilities;
- MaxCap Group and Fortress: in connection with the A$262.5 peak debt facility for the Skytower project;
- Syncora and FGIC, the credit wrappers of more than A$26bn of debt owed by Reliance Rail, in connection with the restructure and refinance of such debt;
- Ashe Morgan: in relation to its equity and debt financing arrangements for its original A$160 million acquisition and subsequent and ongoing development of the ‘Harbour Town’ precinct;
- Providence Equity Partners: in relation to their GBP£675 million leveraged buyout of the Phones 4U Group;
- Macquarie Private Equity: in relation to their GBP£8 billion acquisition of Thames Water;
- Citibank and UBS: in relation to the US$3 billion financing for CSN’s proposed acquisition of the Corus Group;
- ANZ, NAB and CBA: in relation to the A$765 million financing for the acquisition by Southern Cross Media of the Austereo Group; and
- a syndicate of 11 international banks: in connection with the US$3.75 billion letter of credit facilities for the Bombardier Group.