Global law firm Reed Smith and Siemens' in-house legal team have worked together to complete the Thameslink Rolling Stock Project transaction, the largest contract ever awarded to Siemens plc in the UK. As part of the deal, Siemens will produce 1,140 new Desiro City commuter rail carriages for the Thameslink route, as well as build two new maintenance depots and provide ongoing maintenance for the trains.
Siemens is a leading global engineering and technology services company providing innovative solutions across the key sectors of energy, industry, infrastructure & cities, financial services and health care.
The highly complex deal, with an aggregate NPV (net present value) of some £2.6 billion over 20 years, forms part of a major £6 billion infrastructure and rolling-stock upgrade underway in England to increase capacity on one of Europe’s busiest stretches of railway.
Nicola Jordan and Hugh Campbell of the Siemens in-house legal team led and managed the transaction, with support from the Reed Smith London and Munich offices on many aspects of the transaction including: real estate, procurement, train manufacture and servicing, finance, employment and corporate aspects.
Leon Stephenson, partner (finance) and Siemens UK relationship partner, added:
“This transaction demonstrated the ability of Siemens' in-house legal team to run and manage a significant, highly complex transaction with the support of Reed Smith, one of its preferred law firms. I believe that Reed Smith demonstrated its expertise, range of resources and flexibility with respect to the provision of legal services to add value to Siemens on this transaction.
“Following Reed Smith’s reappointment to the Siemens list of preferred law firms earlier this year, we’ve had the opportunity to work more closely with Siemens' in-house legal team and to strengthen our relationship with Siemens.”
Jon Pike, partner (real estate and rail) commented:
“We were originally appointed to the Siemens Thameslink team in 2011 in relation to real estate advice on the depot side of the transaction. Over the past two years, we have been delighted to have had the opportunity to work on such an exciting project and to expand our work with the Siemens in-house legal team across a number of practice areas.”
Reed Smith was the only law firm from Siemens’ previous UK legal panel to be successfully reappointed to the panel in January this year.
In addition to Leon Stephenson and Jon Pike, Elizabeth McGovern played a key role in supporting Siemens’ in-house team on the financing aspects of the rolling stock. Other key members of the Reed Smith Thameslink team included finance partner Charlotte Møller, finance associate Anita Gin, employment partner Thomas Ince, litigation partners Rob Falkner and Belinda Paisley (all London), and finance partner Rene Lochmann, corporate partner Michael Fischer and corporate associate Felix Wunderlin (all Munich).
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About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is a global relationship law firm, with more than 1,800 lawyers in 25 offices throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States.
For further information please visit www.reedsmith.com or contact Annabelle Price (Branding & Communications Executive EME) on +44 (0)20 3116 3787.