Lawyer Monthly Magazine - February 2020 Edition

opportunity to collaborate with a top-notch law firm in Austria, Schoenherr, which has great lawyers whom I have enjoyed working with many times in the past. The Schoenherr team ran the debt documents and I ran the warrant, which was a bit of a synthetic tracker of value created by the EIB investment. The structure was sophisticated and somewhat complex, requiring great coordination by the lawyers and across different time zones. How does this deal reflect the current M&A Scene in Austria? The deal reflects the EU’s broad desire to support investments that will create jobs. Because it was a debt structure, the deal was technically not anM&A transaction, but it does reflect the impressive development of new technologies in the region that will have a significant impact. What challenges arise when working on debt financing? How did you work around this? Complications in debt financing typically involve debt covenants. Given that Schoenherr managed the debt financing documents and I was managing the warrant, we needed to work together to make sure that certain triggering events were coordinated for both sets of documents. We also needed to understand how certain business situations for Bitmovin would affect the desired outcome for the debt and the exercise of the warrant. This required both sets of counsel to keep the other informed for purposes of drafting and negotiations. How did you ensure all parties came to an agreement? As stated above, extensive coordination and communication between both sets of counsel were crucial. What are you expecting to occur in the global M&A sector in 2020? I believe the robust environment for M&A will continue in 2020. I focus on M&A in the private equity industry, and PE funds continue to raise significant amounts of capital for investment. Provided that there are no drastic changes to the economics of the PE industry - which fuels significant growth of industry and plays a vital role in creating jobs - I anticipate that PE funds will put this capital to work by investing in growing businesses and funding new opportunities. All of this will feed a robust pipeline of M&A activity. Transactions Bitmovin’s EIB Venture Debt Financing 65 FEB 2020 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM I focus on M&A in the private equity industry, and PE funds continue to raise significant amounts of capital for investment.