With around $290 billion in assets, GSO Capital Partners is one of the world’s largest and most successful investors, with more than 1,000 portfolio companies.

Part of the Blackstone Group, it was established in 2005 and has grown rapidly ever since.

Partner and Head of Private Credit Gareth Eagles explains: “We started working with GSO in 2009 when we did our first major deal for them, a recapitalization of the European laboratory services business ALcontrol.

“GSO is headquartered in New York, but most of the work we do for them is for their European operation.

“The relationship was established by London Partner Mark Glengarry, who had worked with GSO Managing Director Mark Brown while the latter was at Deutsche Bank. We initially advised them on matters relating to distressed assets during the first few years following the financial crisis.”

When Mark Glengarry left the Firm in 2012, he joined another client rather than a competitor, and our relationship with GSO continued, led by Partner Christian Pilkington. That summer, Gareth commenced a secondment at the client’s London office.

He says: “I was an associate at the time, about a year away from partnership, and the timing was perfect, because 2012 was a year when GSO enjoyed a period of extraordinary growth. They’d never had any legal resource in Europe before.

“They also began to diversify and soon launched their first European direct lending fund, which really took off. From that point on, our main challenge was to keep pace with them as their business in Europe grew beyond all recognition.

“That required staying close to them, widening our contacts and relationships and making sure we provided the same great service, even when stretched by increased workloads.”

Our relationship with GSO has continued to prosper and, in 2019, they were one of our biggest clients worldwide, mainly due to our deep relationship with them in Europe.

London Partner Emma Foster, who has worked with GSO since 2012, says: “Back then, we would typically work with them on two deals a year, but that’s increased to dozens in recent years.

“It helps that we have expertise in all areas where GSO needs legal support and that our global footprint means they can get everything they need in one place.

“When you add the personal relationships we’ve built over the years, the case for them to use us for their legal work is extremely compelling. We know everyone in GSO’s European operation and have built many close friendships.”

The secret of the Firm’s success with GSO is partly due to steps we take to prioritize them and show them that they are our key focus among transactional clients.

Emma says: “It’s fair to say that GSO are at the top of their game. They are very driven and dymamic and they expect their legal partners to be exactly the same.

“They want expert advice, delivered quickly and they don’t just want to know their options – they expect us to have an opinion and to tell them what we think.

“That means they consider us a trusted partner and, as a result, you can’t help but feel immersed in their business.”

Gareth adds: “Any client wants to feel valued and GSO can rest assured that we’ll do everything to respond when they need us. Everyone across the Firm appreciates the need to provide immediate responsiveness to GSO, even when busy on other work.

“We’ve also taken steps to systematize everything we’ve learned about the client over the past decade, so that we can deliver a consistent service, every time, which is not replicable by other firms.”

Gareth adds: “Additionally, we run an annual one-day training day session, called GSO University, where we provide training to their junior staff on all topics that the GSO leadership consider important at the time. In doing so, we add value while effectively rendering rival law firm training sessions redundant.”

The Firm provides secondees to GSO on rotation and has established close relationships in several offices and practice areas, including through Michael Mountain, Emma Foster, Shameer Shah and many others in London, Marcus Booth in Dubai, Saam Golshani in Paris, and Iacopo Canino and Fernando Novarese in Milan.

The Firm’s ambition for our relationship with GSO is to maintain our European relationship, while winning more work in the United States, led by David Ridley, Richard Kebrdle and Andrew Zatz in New York and Miami.

Gareth says: “We were fortunate to establish a relationship with GSO in Europe in the early days, which gives us a huge advantage over our competitors, but our rivals hold a similar advantage in the United States, so it’s a long-term challenge to build our relationship there.

“Even so, we’re making great progress, increasing the amount we do for them every year.”

Recent highlights of our work with GSO include advising them on a three-tier financing package to support portfolio company Advent International’s £4 billion acquisition of leading global technology and services innovator Cobham. GSO provided Advent International with second lien debt and common and preferred equity financing to support its bid for the UK firm.

Gareth says: “It was a huge deal which was all over the news and discussed in the UK parliament, because Cobham is so strategically important.

“We acted for GSO and another Blackstone investment arm, Tac Ops, so that gave us a chance to showcase our skills to the wider business, which is another one of our strategic goals.”

The team is also advising on the debt financing supporting Lone Star Fund’s acquisition of BASF Construction Chemicals and, in 2019, we advised GSO on the financing of Advent International’s acquisition of UK electronics company Laird, which won the Loans Deal of the Year award at the 2019 IFLR European Awards.

Gareth says: “GSO is an extremely important client for us and it’s been a privilege to witness our relationship grow over the years and to build some really close friendships at the same time.

“The challenge will be to continue building that relationship and to keep pace as GSO grows, both in Europe and worldwide.”

Emma adds: “The scope for us to grow our relationship is huge because, while we do a lot of work for GSO in Europe, it’s just one geography in one part of the Blackstone Group.

“But it’s also important for us to never let up on the level of service and attention we give them, because they’re such an important and valued client.”

The continued growth of our relationship beyond GSO into the broader Blackstone Group has been reflected in our key client program. Going forward, GSO will now be referred to as Blackstone.