Details
Prior to joining the firm, Lemi was a partner and worked for other established law firms. He has many years experience of acting for a variety of stakeholders in restructuring situations, including directors, corporate clients, private equity investors, lenders and insolvency practitioners. Lemi is ranked in both Legal 500 and Chambers.
Lemi specialises in board advisory and transactional matters including advice on restructuring processes, turnaround options and directors’ duties in the context of financial difficulty, together with distressed business sales. He advises on all aspects of formal insolvency procedures, including administration, liquidation and receivership, together with CVAs and restructuring plans. He also has significant experience in assisting lenders with borrower under-performance and has been on secondment within the distressed lending teams at two major clearing banks.
Further details
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Experience
Recent examples of work include:
- Acted for the administrators (Interpath Advisory) of Tolent plc and its subsidiaries, a significant construction contractor in the North East.
- Advised the directors of an energy broking business on one of the first mid-market Pt26A restructuring plans in the UK, in an innovative use of the new restructuring tool in that market taking the matter through to a sanction hearing at the High Court.
- Advised Tesco on its acquisition of the brand and intellectual property of Paperchase.
- Advised the administrators (PwC) of Blue Group (aka Bensons for Beds, Harveys Furniture and Relyon). This was a significant mandate involving the administration of 26 group companies and the rescue of the Bensons brand and c.1000 jobs.
- Advised Hilco on their purchase from administrators of the brand and intellectual property of Oasis and Warehouse fashion brands, then on their subsequent sale to Boohoo.
- Advised the administrators (RSM) on the administration and pre-pack sale of the business and assets of Barburrito Limited, saving 14 sites and 300 jobs.
- Advised the administrators (Kroll) of the Artisan group, a North West based property development and hotel group.
- Advised KKR on their potential acquisition of a non-performing loan portfolio from a major clearing bank.
- Advised a major UK bank in respect of its enforcement strategy against a sizeable borrower operating a number of hotels across the UK.
- Acted for a number of distressed private equity investors in respect of portfolio companies and in respect of their acquisition of distressed acquisition targets.
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Affiliations
- Member of the Law Society
Lemi McAuley's Expertise
Restructuring and insolvency
