James Burdett
Biography
James leads our London Funds Group and sits on the Firm's Global Funds Steering Committee. He has experience in the formation of private equity and hedge fund structures, fund reviews and due diligence for investors, investment management and advisory agreements, information memoranda and other offering documents, and in advising on specific investment structures for asset classes. He also has extensive experience in advising both buyers and sellers in secondary transactions involving private equity and real estate fund interests, end of life portfolios and GP-led buyouts.
As well as advising fund managers, he counts many large institutional investors amongst his clients. James co-leads the Firm's Sovereign Investors Group its relationship with the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds with whom Baker McKenzie has an exclusive partnership for the provision of Legal and Regulatory knowledge services. James is ranked Band 1 in Investment Funds: Investor Representation by Chambers.
Representative Legal Matters
- Ardian on establishment of private equity secondary fund of funds.
- Private investment firm on the circa USD 800 million sale of a portfolio of 95 private equity fund interests to a combination of secondary fund.
- Global real estate fund manager on the establishment of a USD 1.5 billion global real estate separate managed account fund for an Asian sovereign fund.
- Mitsubishi UFJ on the USD 2.7 billion acquisition of First State Investments, the global fund management platform of Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
- Nomura Real Estate in relation to the acquisition of a UK headquartered pan-European real estate investment manager.
- Edmond de Rothschild on the acquisition of Cording Real Estate, a European real estate fund manager.
- LaSalle Investment Management on the acquisition of European Real Estate Fund manager, JER Partners.
- Institutional investor on its participation in a consortium of investors for the GBP 809 million acquisition of 21 Moorfields, the new City of London headquarters for Deutsche Bank., from Land Securities plc.
- European Real Estate Fund LPs of in relation to end of life of the fund and the secondary sale of the tail end portfolio assets to a new fund managed by the existing manager.
- Olayan on numerous private equity, real estate and venture capital investments globally.
- A group of financial investors on the proposed buyout of a significant co-investment interest in a fund held by the GP/manager's affiliate and related spin-out of GP team.
- Townsend Holdings LLC on a number of real estate fund transactions in logistics, office and industrial assets.
- The LP Advisory Committee of Arcus European Infrastructure Fund I in relation to the extension of the life of that fund and re-negotiation of certain fund terms.
- Mapletree (real estate investment arm of Temasek) on several significant real estate investments in UK, Europe and the US.
- Advising Government of Singapore Investment Corporation on its investment into European energy assets alongside Bluewater Energy.
- Advising Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia on the establishment of a European industrial real estate development fund platform with German real estate developer, Dietz AG.
- A number of Asian, Middle Eastern and European sovereign wealth funds on their private equity, real estate and infrastructure investments globally, and regulatory matters.
- Government Pension Fund of Thailand on establishment of global real estate and private equity investment platforms with third party managers.
- Japan Bank for International Cooperation on the establishment of a Development Fund with another sovereign wealth fund.
- Sovereign wealth fund on the establishment of The Egypt Fund, Egypt's sovereign development fund
- Sovereign wealth fund on the establishment of INA, Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund.
- Arcus Infrastructure Partners on several infrastructure acquisitions and financings across various asset classes including logistics, data centres and fibre optic cable networks.
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Law Society of England and Wales - Member
- City of London Law Society - Member
Admissions
- England & Wales~United Kingdom (1995)
Education
- London Guildhall University (Law Society Finals) (1993)
- London Guildhall University (C.P.E.) (1991)
- University of Edinburgh (MA Hons, Honors) (1990)
Languages
- English