Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Leptos Group on the English law financing aspects of its debt restructuring with Bank of Cyprus.

The Leptos Group is one of Cyprus’ largest group of companies, with its main business interests in real estate development, hotels ownership and management, education (owner of private accredited university) and health care (owner of a hospital).

The key arrangements of the deal include the restructuring of existing term loans between the Leptos Group and Bank of Cyprus and €100m of existing loans being converted into €100m of long-term convertible Loan Notes issued by the Neapolis Smart Eco City holding company, with Bank of Cyprus being the Noteholder.

A corporate reorganisation of the Leptos Group was also completed at the same time.

Michael Ings, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, comments:

“This was a challenging transaction that involved complex existing borrowing arrangements and the requirement to maintain separation between different parts of the Leptos Group, whilst also agreeing a structure acceptable to Bank of Cyprus within its funding constraints.

“As one of the biggest loan restructurings agreed to date in Cyprus since the financial crisis, this deal is significant not only for the Leptos Group but also for the economy of Cyprus as a whole, and we were delighted to work on this matter.”

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by partner Michael Ings, assisted by senior associate Tim Waghorn.