Simon Hugo

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Firm/Organization: Reed Smith LLP
Blogs: Structured Finance In Brief

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The provision of indemnities, particularly those provided to corporate trustees and agents, is an important feature of an effectively functioning structured finance market.  It enables the parties involved to allocate the risks of unforeseen expenditure to those parties with the ultimate economic interest in the transaction and allows trustees and agents to keep their fees at a reasonable level. Whilst the need for indemnities is generally accepted, the terms on which they are provided can…
This week saw the High Court clash between the swap provider, UBS, and the recently appointed replacement note trustee (Glas Trust Corporation) on the embattled Fairhold Securitisation.  The dispute at hand centres on whether or not the ad hoc noteholders group’s fees and expenses (comprising the fees of its financial adviser and lawyers) can be recovered from the waterfall, effectively subordinating payments to the swap providers and noteholders.  The financial adviser’s fees were reported to…
Picture this: it’s 1793. In England, George III is on the throne and the Bank of England issues the first ever ‘fiver’.  In the U.S.A, George Washington hosts the first US cabinet meeting as President and the capital moves from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.  In France, the French Revolution is in full swing with King Louis XVI guillotined, and France becomes the first country to adopt the metric system. And in Ireland, the Irish Stock…
It’s not been a good month for Class X Noteholders. Following the judgment in the Windermere VII case (see our commentary here) in which Snowden J found against the Class X Noteholder, the Chancellor of the High Court, Etherton J, in Titan Europe 2006-1 P.L.C. and others [2016] EWHC 969 (Ch) similarly rejected the arguments put forward by the Class X Noteholders.…
Mr Justice Snowden has handed down judgment of the High Court in the much anticipated Windermere VII Class X Notes dispute. For those of you who haven’t been following it, the dispute relates to the Windermere VII Pan European CMBS in which the holder of the Class X Notes and a holder of the Class B Notes commenced proceedings in the English High Court seeking a number declarations as to the proper construction of the…
If you thought the wrangling over special servicer replacements was over following Richard Snowden QC’s judgment in US Bank v Titan Europe 2007-1 (NHP) plc in April last year, think again. Ever since Fitch issued their press release confirming that as a matter of policy it would not provide rating agency confirmations (RACs) in relation to the replacement of special servicers on EMEA CMBS transactions (covered in our blog “What the Fitch??!”), we’ve seen a…
Previously in Clash of the Titan 2007-1: Zeus has spoken, we took a brief look at the judgment delivered by Richard Snowden QC.  Another interesting aspect of the case which is beginning to generate commentary is that one of the other pre-conditions to the replacement of the Special Servicer is that the successor Special Servicer “has experience in servicing mortgages of commercial property on similar terms to that required under this Agreement and is…
Well, maybe not Zeus but Richard Snowden QC no less.  On Valentine’s Day this year, we published our blog entitled “Clash of the Titan 2007-1”. Now that the red roses have wilted, the champagne drunk and the chocolates eaten, let us take a look at what the first instance decision in Titan Europe 2007-1 (NHP) has to say about replacing special servicers in European securitisation deals. In providing directions to the trustee, Richard…
So it’s been just over a year since Fitch issued their press release confirming that as a matter of policy it would not provide rating agency confirmations (RACs) during the replacement of special servicers on EMEA CMBS transactions and indeed, just over a year since our last blog on the matter, entitled “What the Fitch??!”. At the end of that blog we observed that it was going to be a fun year for CMBS…