Clairfield’s capital solutions team offers global advisory for companies throughout the life cycle

Clairfield International is pleased to announce the enhancement of its corporate finance advisory services with the rollout of the Capital Solutions practice group, specializing in advisory on capital raising and equity/debt advisory. The team has years of collective experience advising chairmen and CEOs, CFOs and shareholders in strategic decisions regarding capital structure, positioning in the capital markets, and financing. The group has access to an extensive network of banks and alternative financiers.

The Capital Solutions group is led by Hans Buysse, based in Antwerp, and Kalle Helander, based in Helsinki, and has specialized team members in six different countries. The team focuses on acquisition financing, project financing, fundraising, leveraged buyouts, real-estate advisory, public-private partnerships, and company advisory in the context of public and private offerings. Private finance initiatives include work in sectors such as energy, utilities, networks, healthcare, transport and infrastructure, and project finance for real estate. Specific services include:

• PPP: Focus on infrastructure and transport, work for the bidding consortium in tenders initiated by a public authority.
• Credit advisory and acquisition financing advisory.
• LBO: Complete structuring with focus on both debt and equity.
• Special financing: troubleshooting using mezzanine debt and bank debt providers.

Hans and Kalle have long and impressive track records in this field. Hans has held senior positions at Deloitte Corporate Finance, KPMG Advisory, and NIBC. He is a board member of the European Federation of Financial Analyst Societies and of EFRAG and is also a university lecturer. Hans specializes in advisory of public-private partnerships and has completed major assignments including the EUR 234 million contract for “Brabo 2”, involving public transport and reconfiguration of the Antwerp city center; and as a member of the Star consortium alongside Nomura plc and Leonardo & Co. to advise the state of Belgium and the Belgian Federal Holding and Investment Company on the holding’s stakes in core assets of the Belgian state. In 2018 Clairfield was again involved in an important mission for the Belgian state preparing one of its major banks for public offering. Kalle has over 20 years of international experience in private equity at 3i and debt advisory at KPMG, among others.

“Capital Solutions makes an excellent fit with our other corporate finance advisory work as it brings us early stage advisory for clients, prior to market transactions, and we are able to participate in the client’s entire life cycle,” says Hans Buysse. “This process is becoming more globalized and our dedicated practice group takes advantage of Clairfield expertise internationally to best create value for our clients.”

“The optimization of capital structure and the tendering of financing brings a clear competitive advantage for our clients- in both organic growth and M&A based transactions,” says Kalle Helander. “By bringing together the expertise at Clairfield into a dedicated group, we can advise our clients on solutions as they face challenges from founding to maturity with a global perspective.”