Richard Semple

Richard Semple is a partner in Goodwin’s Real Estate Industry group. His practice focuses on real estate finance transactions, acting for a range of sponsor, borrower and lender clients.

Mr. Semple advises on all aspects and at all stages of domestic and cross-border real estate finance matters, including in respect of origination, lending, syndication, securitisation, refinancing, restructuring and distressed debt investing (acquisition, management and disposal).

He is one of the most experienced lawyers operating in the UK and European markets on acquisitions of portfolios of loans (secured variously by real estate and other assets) and financing such acquisitions.

Mr. Semple’s representative experience includes advising the following clients on the following transactions:

Medical Properties Trust:

• Its c. £1.05 billion term loan financing of its c. £1.16 billion acquisition (in a joint venture with Waterland Private Equity Investments) of Priory Group, the leading independent provider of behavioural care in the UK
• Its acquisition of a portfolio of select behavioural health facilities, and their concurrent leaseback, from the leading UK behavioural health provider The Priory Group.

GLP:

• The c. €1.1 billion term loan financing of its c. €2.4 billion acquisition from Brookfield of the UK and European logistics business Gazeley (formerly known as IDI Gazeley, now known as GLP Europe)*
• The c. £300 million term loan financing of a portfolio of English, French, German and Italian logistics properties*
• The c. £262 million term loan financing of the development of a portfolio of English, French and German logistics properties*

Lone Star Funds:

• Its c. €2.4 billion acquisition of the Dutch state-owned “bad bank” Propertize (and, thereby, the acquisition of Propertize’s portfolio of performing, sub- and non-performing loans secured by real estate and its portfolio of properties, in each case in and across several European countries), the c. €1.28 billion term loan financing of that acquisition and the contemporaneous back-to-back sale of certain of the performing loans owned by Propertize*
• The c. €805 million senior and c. €130 million mezzanine term loan financings of its acquisition of the Cœur Défense office building in Paris (the largest, by available floor space, commercial building in Europe)*
• Its c. €2.3 billion acquisition from Aviva of a portfolio of performing, sub- and non-performing English and Scottish residential mortgage loans with an aggregate outstanding principal balance of c. €2.7 billion and a portfolio of English and Scottish properties, the c. €1.6 billion term loan financing of that acquisition and the contemporaneous back-to-back sales of certain of those performing loans*
• The c. €146 million term loan financing of its c. €209 million acquisition from DELA Vastgoed of a portfolio of Dutch commercial (office and retail) properties*
• Its c. €1.17 billion acquisition from Commerzbank of a portfolio of non-performing Austrian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, Hungarian, Luxembourg, Romanian, Slovakian, Swiss and Turkish loans with an aggregate outstanding principal balance of c. €1.78 billion and the c. €761 million term loan financing of that acquisition*
• The c. €176 million term loan financing of its acquisition of a portfolio of Slovenian commercial properties*

Bain Capital Credit:

• The c. €268 million term loan financing of its c. €432 million acquisition from Piraeus Bank of a portfolio of Greek non-performing loans with an aggregate outstanding principal balance of c. €1.95 billion secured by real estate*
• The c. €134 million term loan financing of its c. €212 million acquisition from Caixa Geral de Depósitos of a portfolio of Portuguese properties and non-performing loans with an aggregate outstanding principal balance of c. €449 million secured by real estate*
• The c. €124 million term loan financing of its c. €183 million (in aggregate) acquisitions from Banca Carige and certain other Italian banks of several portfolios of Italian “unlikely-to-pay” loans with an aggregate outstanding principal balance of c. €431 million secured by real estate*
• Its c. €602 million acquisition from Liberbank of a portfolio of Spanish commercial and residential properties and the vendor financing of that acquisition*

LaSalle Investment Management: Its c. £49 million acquisition from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank of loans made in relation to the Nobu Hotel London Shoreditch

Ares Management: The c. €242 million term loan financing of its c. €316 million acquisition from Amundi of a portfolio of Austrian, Dutch, Finnish and German commercial (office) properties*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Prior to joining Goodwin in 2020, Mr. Semple was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

Mr. Semple is recommended for Property Finance and commended by client testimonials in both the 2020 and 2019 editions of The Legal 500: United Kingdom.