Practice Experience
Benoit Lavigne is an associate in the Firm's Banking & Capital Markets group and joined the London office in February 2007.  Benoit joined the firm after practicing in the Montreal office of a leading Canadian law firm.

Examples of recent transactions include:

• Acting for Qatar Holding LLC, a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority in connection with its investment in Credit Suisse in an amount of approximately £5.5 billion;
• Acting for Goldman Sachs as arranger and underwriter of a €175 milion million secured PIK loan financing (as well as two add on PIK facilities in the amount of €50 million and €10 million respectively) and €20 million equity financing provided to Setanta Sports to finance Setanta Sports' acquisition of rights for the exclusive broadcasting rights in relation to certain English football premier league matches, PGA golf tournaments and Scottish Premier League football matches;
• Acting for the mandated lead arrangers and underwriters in connection with commitments relating to a €1.3 billion financing provided in relation to a corporate acquisition in the context of a takeover. The financing comprised term, revolving and bridge facilities;
• Acting for JPMorgan plc, as global coordinator, on a transaction involving the reorganisation of the corporate structure of a French borrower and its subsidiaries. The financing involved a €900 million bridge to securitisation take-out borrowing base facility as well as a €350 million senior term and revolving credit facility;
• Acting for the mandated lead arranger, in connection with the provision of credit facilities to a CVC Capital Partners incorporated SPV for the US$1.7 billion acquisition of travel accessory manufacturer Samsonite Corporation (a Delaware entity) by CVC. The financing comprises senior, revolver, second lien and PIK facilities; and

• Acted for UPC Broadband Holding B.V. in connection with its €3.415 billion and US$1.9 billion financing. The proceeds of the facilities were used to refinance existing indebtedness and for corporate reorganisation purposes.
  

Examples of transactions prior to joining the firm include:

• Represented Yellow Pages Income Fund with respect to banking matters in connection with its acquisition of Trader Media Corp., as well as in connection with amending the revolver credit facility in favour of its subsidiary, YPG Holdings Inc.;
• Counsel to a major Canadian manufacturer and distributor of dairy products for the renewal of its syndicated US$200 million credit facilities;
• Acted for a major US bank with respect to the assignment of its participation in a US$350 million term loan B facility; and
• Acted as counsel to Supremex Income Fund (“SIF”) with respect to the putting in place of new syndicated Cdn$115 million credit facilities, made available to its subsidiary, Supremex Inc., concurrently with SIF’s Initial Public Offering.

Bars and Courts
Quebec Bar, admitted 2005

Education
LL.L., Civil Law License, University of Ottawa, Ontario, cum laude, 2002
Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.), Common Law, University of Victoria, British Columbia, 2003

Languages
English, French

Citizenship
Canadian