Finance

Head of division | Jason Fox

Main areas covered | acquisition finance | debt capital markets/securitisation and structured finance | real estate finance | restructuring and insolvency | structured lending including project finance

Key clients include | Credit Suisse | RBS | Société Générale | Tata Group | Transport for London

Sector expertise includes | energy and natural resources | financial institutions | infrastructure | real estate | TMT

  • Bradford & Bingley on its nationalisation
  • Gazprom and Wintershall on the €3 billion project financing to develop one of Russia’s largest gas fields
  • ICICI Bank as international lenders’ counsel on the financing of the modernisation and restructuring project of Delhi International Airport
  • London Underground on the administration of the two Metronet companies responsible for maintaining and upgrading the trains, stations and other infrastructure
  • Merrill Lynch on the first non-recourse Islamic real estate Sukuk financing to be completed in the MENA region, to finance the Villamar luxury residential development located within the prestigious Bahrain Financial Harbour District
  • Tata Steel on the debt and acquisition finance facilities used to finance its acquisition of the Corus group of companies – a highly complex financing of a contested takeover - and the subsequent refinancing of these facilities

Client case study
Our work advising Nedbank on the project financing for the US$650 million Seacom undersea cable connecting South Africa and East Africa with the rest of the world is more than “high profile”; it will have positive consequences for African economies and millions of Africans.

Seacom is a 15,000 km undersea cable system running from near Durban in South Africa to Mumbai in India and Marseille in France via Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania. Seacom’s 1.28 terabit per second of broadband capacity is expected to boost economic and social development in the parts of Africa it serves.

It’s due to be completed in 2009 in time to meet the explosion in demand for bandwidth that the 2010 FIFA World Cup will cause.

Partner Chris Fanner led the finance aspects of the deal: “Combining project finance techniques with venture capital investment for a multi-jurisdictional project in Africa made for a unique and challenging deal.”

Just as Seacom’s cables crossed borders, so did our legal work – the deal demanded an understanding of jurisdictions in India, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Mozambique, New York and the UK. Expertise in telecommunications was drawn from our technology, media and telecoms team.

The Seacom undersea cable project was the recipient of three awards at the Africa Investor Infrastructure Awards 2008.