Claire Scott-Priestley Partner

Claire Scott-Priestley has broad experience in international corporate and finance transactions with a particular focus on private equity. She advises on all aspects of corporate transactions including the financing of such deals and corporate recovery situations.

Claire has extensive experience advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, particularly leveraged acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic reorganizations and restructurings, and general corporate matters.

Her practice also focuses on debt and equity finance, and she has acted for both lenders and borrowers in relation to a variety of senior and mezzanine facilities.

Claire advises publicly and privately held companies and private equity funds operating in a number of jurisdictions across a range of industries. She has advised on transactions in industries including telecommunications, technology, energy, retail, manufacturing, financial services and real estate and largely concentrates her practice on emerging markets, particularly Central and Eastern Europe.

Claire is a frequent speaker at conferences on private equity in CEE, particularly on the subject of mezzanine finance.  She has authored a number of articles on private equity in CEE and is regularly interviewed by specialist publications for her views on the industry in the region.

Representative Experience

• Advising a leading emerging markets private equity fund on the mezzanine financing of a chemicals group with operations in Russian, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.
• Advising a consortium of private equity funds led by Columbia Capital, M/C Venture Partners and Innova Capital in the €440 million acquisition of GTS Central Europe, an alternative telecom service operator in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic including senior and mezzanine financing.
• Representing the Central European branch of a US private equity firm in connection with mezzanine loans to a Turkey-based provider of security services and a Turkish water company.
• Advising a US-based venture capital firm on multiple debt and equity investments in emerging technology businesses in various jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, United States, Japan and Israel.
• Counseling a consortium member on a joint venture to establish and operate the first mobile telephone network in the southern region of post-war Iraq.
• Representing a consortium of private equity investors led by Cable Partners Europe in its €2 billion acquisition of Telenet, the largest broadband cable operator in Belgium.
• Advising a family office on the acquisition of a majority stake in a European hostel business.
• Representing a Nasdaq-listed, US-based company on multiple acquisitions of targets in the document management business in the UK and Europe.
• Counseling a management buyout team on the acquisition of a UK-based courier business from a company in administrative receivership and advising on numerous subsequent bolt-on acquisitions and a group reorganization and refinancing.
• Advising a Nasdaq-listed, US-based company on the disposal of its UK-based subsidiary operating ATMs in Europe, the subsequent acquisition of a UK-based company in the business of electronic top-ups for prepaid mobile phones, the expansion of the group by way of acquisitions of companies and businesses across Europe and Asia and global group refinancings.