About

In the last two years the legal team of Scatec has grown from two to seven lawyers that have each worked on the development, acquisition, structuring, project debt finance and equity funding of large infra-structure projects in Malaysia, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Mozambique. Heading this department of international expertise is the highly respected executive vice president, general counsel and head of compliance Snorre Valdimarsson. Vice president legal Annette Andreassen is another long-serving member of the team and is known for her specialisation in engineering procurement and construction contracts, operations and maintenance as well as asset management contracts and all related legal work streams. Valdimarsson says he has been ‘greatly assisted’ in the acquisition of projects and the successful closing and financing of more than 12 large scale infrastructure projects across the globe by senior legal counsels Martine Dysvik and Siobhan Minnaar who are both specialists in corporate M&As. At the same time, legal counsel Esenia Steckmest, who specialises in dispute resolution and arbitration matters, has been ‘a great asset’ in assisting Andreassen with the legal construction, procurement and operations and maintenance work streams which, with the acquisition of more projects, continue to grow. The other members of the team who recently joined are Sanne Stamps, who is based in Amsterdam and specialises in corporate matters, and Bruna Verdi, who is based in Brazil and specialises in compliance matters pertaining to the group’s Brazil ventures. Proud of his truly international and multitalented department, Valdimarsson says that, ‘the team consists of specialists across all areas key to the company’. Describing the achievements of the team on the important aforementioned international projects the team have excelled on recently, Valdimarsson had the following to say: ‘All these projects involved complex structuring in several jurisdictions, typically first mover negotiations with the governments to secure power purchase agreements, grind connection agreements, implementation agreements ensuring they meet the standards from international lenders to secure non-recourse debt funding. In addition to securing co-sponsors and the structuring thereof, the company also act as main contractor, operator and asset manager and the legal team must structure this as well in close negotiations with the lenders. As contractor, the company is required to post significant bank guarantees on various levels which is secure by leveraging on Norwegian export credit and Norwegian and international banks’. When asked to comment on the team’s ethos, he had the following to add: ‘Our team is incredibly cohesive. The team focus relentlessly on integrity and ensuring the highest standard. The team is an excellent combination experienced, highly skilled and hard-working lawyers and fostered an open and supportive team environment founded on mutual respect for one another, having six nationalities among the team seven members, the team also truly is an international team serving a fast growing global company’.