Insider Media Limited

A £52m finance facility has been made available to Warwick-based IM Properties by Santander. It is one of several deals involving the Birmingham office of DLA Piper. DLA has also acted for Barclays on an increased and extended £65m credit facility for Birmingham-based St Modwen.

The office was also involved in the £240m deal when it acted for lenders in the acquisition of motorway service station business The Extra Group from administration by London-based M3 Capital Partners. It comprised eight operational motorway service stations and a development site on the M25 at Cobham which, when completed in 2012, is set to be the largest motorway service station in Europe.

DLA Piper advised RBS and Barclays, as joint arrangers, along with Santander on £180m of funding to a Jersey borrower, with equity funding being provided by Evergreen Real Estate Partners. The service stations had formerly been owned by Swayfields Limited until administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers moved in.

The second deal involved DLA Piper acting for Santander in relation to a £52m facility made available to Warwick-based IM Properties. The finance was in connection with a portfolio comprising seven investment properties across the UK.

The third transaction involved DLA Piper acting for Barclays on an increased and extended £65m revolving credit facility for St Modwen Properties to support the acquisition of a portfolio of 11 income producing employment sites.

DLA finance partner Brian Woolcock said: “These deals all involved significant amounts of money and it is a feather in the cap of the Birmingham office that these sorts of amounts can be handled out of the city.

“The wheels of commerce are back turning again and it is very pleasing that the Finance group is at the forefront.”