Gittings Global - NE82514

Christopher Scott Armstrong

Partner

chris.armstrong@lw.com
    Gittings Global - NE82514

    Christopher Scott Armstrong

    Partner

    chris.armstrong@lw.com

    Profile

    Chris Armstrong advises private equity, private capital, and banking clients on structured and bespoke financing opportunities and solutions across companies’ life cycles.

    He draws on his extensive experience across a broad range of asset classes to help clients devise and implement structures relating to:

    • Preferred equity and hybrid capital
    • Asset-backed financing
    • Litigation funding
    • Sports financing
    • Esoteric structures

    He unlocks the resources across the firm’s robust global platform to provide clients with integrated solutions to monetize assets and manage risk in borrowing and lending opportunities.

    Chris maintains an active pro bono practice, including advising on commercial contracts through Runnymede Trust, an organization challenging structural racism in the UK.

    Experience

    Chris’ experience includes advising:

    • Goldman Sachs International and HSBC on McLaren’s issuance of £400m of senior preference shares and £150m of convertible preference shares, structured to receive equity credit from rating agencies
    • PureGym and Leonard Green & Partners (PureGym Group’s majority shareholder) on KKR's £300 million preferred equity investment in PureGym
    • The Issa brothers (founders and co-CEOs of EG Group) and leading UK-based private equity firm TDR Capital on the structured equity aspects of acquiring Asda Group Limited, Walmart’s wholly owned UK business, for a £6.8 billion  enterprise value
    • The structuring banks on a £8.5 billion pre-IPO margin loan secured over a leading British technology company's unlisted shares and on restructuring the margin loan in connection with the IPO
    • A private equity fund on the asset-backed acquisition financing facility to fund the acquisition of Barclays’ UK leasing business
    • A range of private equity investors on litigation portfolio, mass tort claim, and law firm funding facilities in the UK and Europe
    • Multiple corporate entities on bilateral and multilateral receivables and invoice factoring facilities in the UK and Europe
    • A private equity sponsor on providing loan-on-loan financing to a high-net-worth individual, secured over a shareholder loan made to global operating business
    • A private equity fund on financing and investing in football player transfers on a pan-European basis 
    • A sovereign wealth fund on a PIPE investment in a London-listed luxury car manufacturer
    • UK Asset Resolution, a wholly owned HM Treasury subsidiary, on a £13 billion sale of assets from Bradford & Bingley and associated stapled securitization financings*

    *Matters handled prior to joining Latham & Watkins
     

    Qualifications

    Bar Qualification

    • England and Wales (Solicitor)

    Education

    • Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP Law School, London, 2012
    • M.St. in American History, Oxford University, 2010
    • BA (Hons) in History, Oxford University, 2009
      First Class

    Practices

    News & Insights

    Perspective and underside angle view of contemporary glass building skyscraper,blue toned,china.
    February 12, 2024 Article

    In Practice: Preparing for a New UK Securitisation Framework

    In this article the authors consider how buy- and sell-side parties to securitisation transactions can get ready to comply with the UK’s new securitisation framework. Originally published in the January 2024 edition of Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law.
    Read More