Law firm Paul Hastings has advised Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank as lead arrangers and bookrunners on the USD815 million term loan B refinancing of Suddenlink’s existing term loan facilities. Suddenlink is the seventh largest US cable operator with approximately 1.5 million subscribers.   In June 2015, Paul Hastings advised JP Morgan and BNP Paribas in connection with the high yield bond and loan financing of Altice’s USD9.1 billion acquisition of Suddenlink.   In April 2016, Paul Hastings advised JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and RBC in connection with the USD1.5

LendingCrowd, a UK alternative finance lender, has partnered with the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, in an initiative that will see GBP2.75 million invested in Scottish SMEs across the LendingCrowd platform. It is expected that the move will stimulate loans of up to GBP35 million for SMEs while leveraging significant private sector investment.   The agreement will allow SMEs to access loans of between GBP5,000 and GBP250,000 over terms ranging from six months to five years.   Applicants apply directly to LendingCrowd, which will then undertake the appropriate due diligence on each investment case and

UK Green Investment (GIB) is to provide Kent County Council with a GBP10.2 million green loan to help finance the local authority’s GBP40 million streetlight conversion programme. The project involves the replacement of 120,000 traditional streetlights with energy-saving LED alternatives and the installation of a central management system (CMS), increasing the efficiency of the local authority’s lighting stock while making it easier to manage.   The council estimates that the programme will reduce annual electricity consumption by 60 per cent and cut maintenance costs, resulting in anticipated savings in excess of GBP5 million per year. The new lights are also

Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets (LGIM Real Assets) has completed a new loan to the Arora Group, for GBP175 million over 15 years, refinancing existing debt for Arora in the current low interest rate environment. LGIM Real Assets arranged the transaction for a third party client alongside its annuity fund and the deal is the second financing between Arora Group and LGIM Real Assets.   Steve Boyle (pictured), lending manager at LGIM Real Assets, says: “The fundamentals of this loan are very strong. It is secured against a high quality asset within the Arora Group portfolio. We continue

Barclays has signed a GBP1.5 million money market loan agreement with Kimble, a business performance software provider. The funding agreement was signed by Lorraine Ruckstuhl from Barclays and Sean Hoban from Kimble, to provide the business with working capital for future growth.   The funding comes from Barclays’ GBP200 million venture debt fund, which was established to help the UK’s high-growth firms compete with Silicon Valley. To date, Barclays has helped a range of high growth companies with business financing from this fund.   The fund was extended to GBP200 million earlier this year, in addition to the launch of

Dortmund-based unified communications provider Swyx is to strengthen its cooperation with Deutsche Telekom after reaching a record number of 750,000 users this summer with 130,000 in the past year. Both companies have signed a strategic cooperation agreement up to 2021. In addition, Deutsche Telekom has increased its existing stake in Swyx.   "We are very proud of the cooperation agreement we have signed with Deutsche Telekom. As a German technology company with a focus on unified communications solutions for small businesses, this strategic partnership allows us to unite our innovative product range with the intelligent market approach of Deutsche Telekom.

A fund managed by BlackRock Real Assets has completed the refinancing of five operational wind projects in England with ING, which provided a GBP55 million long term debt facility. The 46MW wind portfolio is located throughout England and the projects have been operational for three years on average.   The projects benefit from a 15-year power purchase agreement and long-term operations and maintenance arrangements.   “We are very pleased to refinance this wind portfolio on behalf of our clients. This transaction represents our continued focus on enhancing the value of our renewable power investments, where BlackRock has over USD2.5 billion

Investec Corporate & Acquisition Finance, KBC and Rabobank have jointly provided debt finance facilities to support Waterland’s acquisition of a stake in energy supplier Scholt. The acquisition is being made alongside the original founder, Jan Scholt, and Scholt’s management.   The deal marks Investec’s eighth recent financing transaction in the Benelux region.

Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) portfolio company Nord Hydro-Beliy Porog has broken ground on the construction of small hydropower plants on the river Kem in Karelia, Northwest Russia. The breaking ground ceremony was held in the presence of the Head of the Republic of Karelia Alexander Khudilainen, RDIF executives and its international partners Sinomec, the New Development Bank (NDB) founded by the BRICS countries, and other organisations involved in the project.   The construction of two Beloporozhskaya hydro power plants with a total capacity of 49.8 MW is the NDB’s first project in Russia. As of today, it is the