Trade finance

Toby specialises in international banking deals. He has wide-ranging knowledge advising banks and borrowers in syndicated and secured bank financings, with a particular focus on corporate lending, event-driven, structured and limited recourse financings (including commodities, structured trade and export financings in emerging markets). Toby leads the firm’s relationship with a number of major mining and banking clients and is one of the firm’s mining sector leaders. Toby is actively involved in the firm’s Africa practice and is also co-head of the firm’s Nigeria desk and a member of the coordinating committee covering the firm’s alliance with South Africa’s premier law firm Webber Wentzel. Toby spent three years in the firm’s Singapore office and was seconded to Credit Suisse (in 2001) and Barclays (in 2007), equipping him with first-hand knowledge of the banking sector and deep insight into the relationship between banks and law firms.

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Geoffrey Wynne is head of the Trade & Export Finance Group and Sullivan's London office. He has extensive experience in banking and finance, specifically corporate and international finance, trade and structured trade and commodity finance, electronic bank and digitising trade finance, structured finance, asset and project finance, syndicated lending, equipment leasing, workouts and financing restructuring, leveraged and management buy-outs and general commercial matters. Recognised as one of the leading trade finance lawyers globally, Geoff has advised extensively many of the major trade finance banks around the world on trade and commodity transactions in virtually every emerging market including CIS, Far East, India, Africa and Latin America. He has worked on many structured trade transactions covering such diverse commodities as oil, nickel, steel, tobacco, cocoa and coffee. The team which Geoff leads has won numerous awards and recognition for its work in the Trade and Export Finance industry. In 2021 the firm was named ‘GTR Law Firm of the Year for Innovation’, recognising the role the firm played during the initial stages of the pandemic in 2020 helping to ensure the trade finance industry was able to move to a secure digital environment from a legal perspective.

Simon Cook has experience in a wide variety of banking and finance transactions, including in particular in relation to structured trade finance, trade finance, project finance, invoice discounting facilities and borrowing-base facilities in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the CIS. His work in the structured trade area covers a range of pre-export and prepayment financings acting for both lenders and borrowers notably in oil, telecoms, soft commodities and metals sectors with particular experience in Africa and the Middle East. Simon has worked and travelled extensively in Africa and the Middle East, having spent over three and a half years in Dubai. He has participated in a number of structured trade finance and project finance conferences and seminars throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including speaking at conferences on PPP in South Africa; on project finance and structured trade finance at Afrexim's annual structured finance conferences in Egypt, Ghana, Zambia and South Africa; and at structured trade finance seminars and general finance in London, Paris, Lisbon, Geneva, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Nairobi and Dubai.  

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Sam Fowler-Holmes specialises in structured and unstructured trade, commodity and export finance, advising both financial institution and corporate clients on a range of financing products including pre-export financing, pre-payment financing, letter of credit and payment instrument facilities and working capital and borrowing base financings. He has extensive experience advising clients on a wide variety of supply-chain finance structures and has acted for electronic platform providers and platform participants. Sam regularly advises on risk distribution techniques, including funded and unfunded participations and standby letters of credit and demand guarantees, and on insurance-related issues. He has acted on matters in relation to numerous jurisdictions across mainland Europe, CIS, Africa, Asia and the Americas and in connection with a significant range of commodities including oil, gas, metals and soft commodities. Sam is a regular speaker at the Sullivan trade and export finance seminars and is a member of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) Emerging Leaders Committee.

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Mark's practice covers cross border inward investment, syndicated lending, structured export credit finance, structured trade and commodity finance, debt restructurings and asset finance. He has been recognised in The Legal 500 UK as "excelling" in structured export credit transactions and is praised for his "commercial and user-friendly approach." Mark advises on ESG financings including hospitals, clean energy and transportation, and advises on financial crime, modern slavery, bribery and corruption issues in connection with trade and export finance. He led Sullivan’s response to the UK Government's consultation on UK Export Finance (UKEF)'s anti-bribery and corruption policy, with many of his recommendations accepted by the UK Government. He has advised financial institutions, funds, corporate borrowers, agents and trustees, and national and supranational sovereign/quasi-sovereign organisations on award-winning finance transactions throughout Africa, Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS and the Middle East. Mark has extensive sector experience in infrastructure financing across Africa including off-grid power, healthcare and transportation, and has lived and practised law in the Czech Republic (Prague), England (London), Germany (Düsseldorf and Frankfurt) and Russia (Moscow). Mark holds graduate and post-graduate degrees with honours from the London School of Economics.

Philip is an experienced commodities trade finance partner whose work covers the financing of the international supply of energy and hard and soft commodities with a focus on the finance, security and other transactional documents which include all related sale and purchase, logistics, storage and insurance contracts. He has acted for a wide range of clients in the commodities trade finance sector including traders, banks, other financial institutions, suppliers, sellers and purchasers as well as intermediaries. He has acted in relation to all structures including prepays, inventory, limited recourse, receivables and repo financings. Philip also focuses on digital trade finance and technologies including expertise in blockchain systems, digital assets including crypto assets, smart contracts and in advising start-ups/spin-offs in relation to innovative digital projects including digital trade sale and purchase platforms. Philip has considerable experience in acting on the finance and security aspects of major restructurings of entities within the global commodities market.

Jameel specialises in structured commodities trade finance. He has experience acting for banks, investors, corporates and traders up and down the global commodities supply chain in many emerging jurisdictions and covering all forms of structured trade and commodity financings including pre-export, pre-payment, inventory, limited recourse, receivables financings Jameel also advises clients on digital trade technologies and the application of these to their businesses. Further, he has in-depth restructuring experience gained from working on the restructuring of traders in the commodities space which has included working on the global Stemcor restructuring for two years, working in the team advising a major creditor on the restructuring of the indebtedness of the Nigerian state-owned oil major PPMC / NNPC (“PXF2”) and more recently working on the restructuring of a Dubai based agricultural commodities trader. He has also spent time on secondment at BP advising on trade finance issues. Jameel was ranked as a "Next Generation Lawyer" in The Legal 500 UK 2018-19 and as a "Rising Star" in The Legal 500 UK 2020-21 and 2021-22 editions.

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