Insights Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment

Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023

Key features of Ireland’s first foreign investment regime

Ireland’s first piece of investment screening legislation has been signed into law by the President. The Screening of Third Country Transactions Act…

05/06/24

About Micheál

Micheál is a Partner in our Financial Services team. He advises clients on real estate finance, tax driven financing structures and restructuring. He is frequently lauded by clients for his commercial and pragmatic approach to transactions.

Micheál advises private equity, lenders and other investors on the enablement, structuring, acquisition, disposal, financing and servicing of large non-performing loan portfolios, in Ireland and Europe. He also advises banks and private equity on “loan on loan” financing, and debt origination platforms. Project finance is also a feature of his real estate finance practice including renewables, data centres and telecoms infrastructure.

As chair of our International Committee and former head of our London office, Micheál has an innate understanding of the international considerations of clients and sophisticated stakeholder management.

Related Practice Areas

Related Sectors

Clients

Micheál advises the following:

Financial institutions
Funds
Corporates
Private equity on real estate finance
Syndicated credit facilities
Tax driven financing structures
Acquisition finance
Development, construction and project finance

Additional Information

Authorships

Chambers Global Practice Guide – Banking and Finance – Ireland Chapter 2018
"Society of Young Solicitors Ireland - Scholars, Youth & Success Since 1965" (Co-Editor)
Contributor to The World Bank/International Finance Corporation's "Doing Business" Series
University College Cork’s Cork Online Law Review (Editorial Committee)

Engagements

Micheál has spoken at conferences organised by the American Bar Association (Section of International Law), UKTI, British Irish Chamber of Commerce, Society of Young Solicitors Ireland, Dublin Solicitors Bar Association and AIJA (International Association of Young Lawyers)
Micheál has lectured on the Irish Law Society’s Certificate of Banking Law and Practice course

Education

Law Society of Ireland, Blackhall Place (Solicitor)
University College Cork (LLM)
University College Cork and St Louis University School of Law (BCL (Intl))

Professional Memberships

Law Society of Ireland
Solicitor of the Senior Courts, England and Wales
British and Irish Chamber of Commerce (Council Member and former director)
International Bar Association
Society of Young Solicitors Ireland (Past Chair)
Ireland Network Great Britain (Past Chair)

Representative Matters

- Advised a major European bank on its acquisition of DEPFA BANK plc, and its subsidiary DEPFA ACS Bank DAC, from Germany’s FMS Wertmanagement AöR. DEPFA Group.
- Advised EdgeConneX, a leading US co-location data centre provider in relation to the acquisition, construction, financing of a significant data centre campus in Dublin.
- Advised Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. on the Project Bay loan portfolio sale, involving in excess of 2,300 individual assets.
- Advised Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. and HSBC plc in respect of the restructure of facilities advanced to a leading Irish manufacturer and secured over assets located in the UK, Europe, the US and the Channel Islands.
- Advised Permanent tsb on the €2.1bn Project Glas loan portfolio sale, the largest non-performing sale of its kind in the Irish market.
- Advised an international investment bank on the re-financing of the acquisition by a US private equity fund of an Irish development finance focussed direct lending platform.
- Advised a large US private equity fund with respect to the acquisition and financing of a number of high profile loan portfolios (performing, non-performing, secured and unsecured) in Ireland, Northern Ireland and across Europe (using Irish structures).
- Advised Goldman Sachs Asset Management in respect of its investment in the €900m Fairfield Real Estate Finance backed development finance platform Initiative Ireland, which aims to finance the construction of 7,500 private, social and affordable homes in Ireland. This deal was recognised as one of Finance Dublin’s Deals of the Year for 2022.
- Advised Citibank on behalf of a syndicated lending group who recently provided financing to IPS-Integrated Project Services, LLC (a subsidiary of Alleghany Capital) in order to fund their acquisition of Irish company, Anchorbuoy Limited and the Linesight group of companies.