Zepos & Yannopoulos advised Thomas Cook Hotel Investments (TCHI), a joint venture between Thomas Cook plc and LMEY Investments AG, in a €40 million loan financing with Piraeus Bank. The transaction is the first in the strategic partnership of the two sides to grow TCHI’s investments in local hotel properties with Piraeus Bank as sole financier.
Thomas Cook Group is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, with sales of £9 billion in the year ended 30 September 2017, serving over 20 million customers annually. Thomas Cook was the biggest international tour operator in Greece this year, while it served 3 million customers.
We advised TCHI with both structuring and implementing the transaction which included a corporate restructuring leg to implement the joint venture deal with a bank debt transaction designed as asset financing through the issuance of Greek corporate bonds.
The ZEYA team was led on the transactional side by senior associate Kely Pesketzi assisted by associate Paris Tzoumas; the transaction team also included associates Athina Palli and Alexis Kontogiannis. The structuring workstream (corporate, financial, tax and accounting) was undertaken by partners Marina Allamani (tax), Maria Zoupa (tax), Athina Skolarikou (corporate & M&A), senior associate Elena Papachristou (finance & capital markets) and associates Danai Falconaki (corporate), Eleanna Kamperi (tax) and Sofia Tzianoumi (corporate) with the support of ZEYA Accounting S.A., our wholly owned accounting firm.
