Sophie Lok

Partner

Sophie Lok is a stand-out lawyer - she has great technical skills, easily navigates the land mines in the documentation and is a great communicator.

— Legal 500 EMEA 2024

Emailsophie.lok@dlapiper.com

Call+33 (0) 1 40 15 24 00

Paris

About

Sophie Lok is a partner in Finance practice in Paris.

Sophie has an extensive experience in acquisition and corporate financings. She avises banks and debt funds and has a developed an expertise on various products including senior, unitranche, TLB, SSRCF, PIK, mezzanine. She also regularly assists private equity funds and large corporates on both domestic and cross-border transactions.

Sophie can also assist clients with other types of financings.

Areas of FocusFinance Private Equity Structured Finance and Securitization Asset-based Lending

Professional QualificationsAvocat admitted to the Paris Bar

EXPERIENCE

Advising a pool of 23 banks led by Crédit Industriel et Commercial and Crédit Agricole CIB on the extension and increase of a financing of over one billion euros for Clariane (ex-Korian).
Advising the Pricoa Private Capital debt fund as lender in the EUR70m direct lending LBO financing of Montefiore Investment's acquisition of oXya from the Hitachi group.
Advising the US fund STG Partners as sponsor in the unitranche LBO financing provided by Five Arrows to the Sciforma group for the acquisition of the US group KeyedIn Solutions.
Advising BNP Paribas as agent and Caisse d'Epargne et de Prévoyance d'Ile de France as coordinator of a banking pool with respect to the primary LBO financing of the acquisition of Numworks by Aldebaran Capital Partners.
Advising the ID Logistics group as borrower on a EUR200m financing provided by BNP Paribas, BECM, Banque Palatine, Crédit Agricole, Natixis and Société Générale as mandated arrangers and other banks in the pool.
Advising Caisse d'Epargne et de Prévoyance d'Ile de France and a banking pool on the LBO financing of Naxicap's acquisition of Solutys.
Advising Société Générale and a banking pool on the financing of the acquisition of the workboat division of the Dutch group Acta Marine by Jifmar.
Advising Ares as lender for the French aspects of the LBO financing of the CED group by Rivean Capital.
Advising Crédit Agricole CIB and a banking pool on the impact loan financing of the ONV group.
Advising Société Générale and a banking pool on the LBO financing of Enviris Groupe.
Advising the lenders led by Société Générale and Crédit Agricole in the financing of Punch Powerglide.
Advising the ID Logistics Group as borrower in a EUR465m financing for the acquisition of the American group Kane Logistics, provided by BNP Paribas.
Advising Caisse d'Epargne et de Prévoyance d'Ile de France and a banking pool on EMZ's minority investment in Yuri et Neil. Advising Pricoa Private Capital as direct lender on the unitranche financing of the Generix group in the context of the delisting by Montefiore Investment*.
Advising Crédit Agricole CIB, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Crédit Lyonnais and HSBC and the pool of banks (more than 30 lenders) on the EUR325m LBO and Incremental financing of the acquisition of the Emera group by Ardian and Naxicap*.
Advising Tikehau IM as lender on the bond financing of Provepharm*.
Advising Natixis, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, Unicrédit on the EUR290m LBO financing of the acquisition of Infragroupe by ICG*.
Advising Andera for the bond financing of Sogetrel*.
Advising Crédit Agricole CIB for the corporate and SSL financing of the Etam group*.
Advising Swissport as borrower on a EUR460m TLB and EUR225m incremental financing*.
Advising Caspar (Hériard-Dubreuil family) as borrower on the EUR385m takeover financing of Onéo by Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas.

*denotes experience from previous firm.

Languages

Education

Université Paris 1 Panthéon-La Sorbonne (Master de Droit Privé)

Université Paris 5 (Master 2 de Droit des Affaires internationales)

Université de Nantes et de Shanghai (Master 2 de Management)

AWARDS

Prior Experience

Prior to joining DLA Piper, Sophie worked 14 years in the Banking Finance team of a leading international Anglo-American law firm.
She also worked in-house for a client in the corporate finance team of a multinational insurance and investment firm based in Paris.
Sophie has gained experience in international law firms in Paris and Shanghai as well as in the structured finance of a leading international banking institution.