About

Based in: London

Number of years practice: 20

Principal practice areas: Project finance, project development and corporate

Languages spoken: English

What is the geographical focus of your practice in Africa?

Pan-African practice.

Please describe the most important matters you have worked on in the African market in the last two years, including your role and the significance of the matter (if any) to the development of business and law.

A landmark US$900m gas power project, the first IPP in Nigeria for more than a decade (Azura-Edo IPP, Nigeria), where I led the Trinity team that advised the project company and sponsors. I also lead the Trinity teams that are currently acting on a gas power project and six solar PV projects in Nigeria.

I led the Trinity team that advised the sponsors (Neoen) of the first solar photovoltaic project in the World Bank Scaling Solar programme to reach financial close (Bangweulu Project, Zambia), and led the Trinity team that advised the sponsor (Scatec) of the first large-scale solar plant in Mozambique and a milestone in the country’s ambition to increase renewable power generation in its energy mix (Mocuba IPP).

I lead the Trinity team that is advising the sponsors of potentially the first ever successful IPP in Sierra Leone, was part of the Trinity team that advised on the first independent power project in Ghana (Cenpower Kpone IPP) to achieve financial close and I am currently acting for a number of development finance institutions with respect to the financing of off-grid projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

I lead the Trinity team that is currently acting for a number of development finance institutions with respect to the financing of a 56 MW Lake Kivu IPP and a hydro project, both in Rwanda. I also led
the Trinity team that advised the lenders to the 80 MW Hakan peat IPP in Rwanda that reached financial close in 2017. I lead the Trinity team that is currently advising the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund in respect of its investment in a container terminal and new oil jetty in Takoradi Port, Ghana.

What differentiates your practice from that of other private practice lawyers?

My practice focuses almost entirely on emerging markets transactions and the vast majority of those are in Africa. Other than my fellow partners at Trinity International, I suspect that there are few international lawyers that have such a keen focus on Africa.

Why has Africa been a particularly strong focus for you?

I travelled to Africa after university and I have had a huge affection for the continent ever since. I’ve been fortunate to be able to dedicate my career to advising on transactions on the continent. Africa has remained a focus because, although there are many challenges involved in trying to structure and close deals, those deals are very often first-in-market and/or very important, strategic assets for a particular country.

Being involved in helping to deliver infrastructure to countries that are so in need of that infrastructure is very satisfying.

What changes have you seen in the appetite for Africa-based ventures and investments over the last five years?

The appetite for African investments, particularly in the power and infrastructure sectors, has certainly increased in the last five years. A number of new infrastructure funds that are focused on Africa have emerged. Traditional global private equity investors have also become more interested in investments in Africa in that time.

The appetite amongst the financial institutions, notably the development finance institutions, but also corporate banks for lending to these transactions has remained very strong during that period. The emergence of renewable energy technologies, particularly solar photovoltaic (but also wind, hydro and biomass) has resulted in a large increase in the pure number of transactions that we are seeing. I am working on a significant number of renewable independent power projects in more than 20 countries across Africa at the moment.

I have also noticed that we are working on an increasing number of acquisitions and disposals in the power and infrastructure sectors. This has effectively created a secondary market in Africa (albeit on a smaller scale than in other markets, such as Europe or the US).

Are there any aspects of the African legal market that you would like to see change?

I’d like to see the removal of ad valorem stamp duties and registration fees in a number of countries as these act as a barrier to investment on the basis that the cost of registering security and transferring assets can be disproportionately expensive.

What megatrends do you think will shape the African market over the coming five years? How (if at all) will these trends affect your practice?

I do not think that there is sufficient liquidity or activity in the African market to create “megatrends”.

In the power sector, I suspect that we will see more capital being deployed in the off-grid sector in order to combat the fact that large areas of the continent are too remote from the transmission systems to allow them to be connected easily and cheaply. We are already advising on numerous off-grid and commercial and industrial power projects but I imagine that this part of the practice will continue
to grow.