Shipping: foreign firms

Watson Farley & Williams LLP

Watson Farley & Williams LLP‘s group has a particular focus on transactional, financing, litigious and corporate shipping matters. The team acts on the full spectrum of financings, including JOLCO, asset finance, and sustainability backed loan-related matters. Its transactional work includes restructurings and acquisitions. The team’s client base consists of several major financial institutions, banks, and shipping companies. Hong Kong-based maritime finance specialist Madeline Leong, Bangkok-based Steven Burkill and international disputes expert Sumeet Malhotra all oversee the practice. Andrew Nimmo is experienced in offshore oil and gas matters, and Lizzie Roe is worthy of note also.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘Lizzie Roe and Andy Wilson are extremely proactive and use previous experiences with our own and other ING teams to find satisfying compromises.’
‘WFW has an established reputation for its strength in the shipping sector, its representation of its client's interests, delivery of innovative transaction structuring and its advisory and engagement work regarding communication of market developments.’
‘Madeline Leong always provides the highest level of client representation, her advisory, structuring and negotiations of shipping-related issues and banking/finance are the best in class and she sets the benchmark and standard for achieving the most beneficial outcome for her clients.'
'Madeline Leong has secured WFW as the principal and preferred legal firm for our company.'

Key clients

ING Bank N.V., Singapore Branch
Credit Agricole Asia Shipfinance Limited
Standard Chartered Bank
Oversea- Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Berge Bulk
BW Group
BNP Paribas
Armada 98/2 Pte. Ltd.
Oka Tanker Pte Ltd

Work highlights

Advised BNP Paribas on US$1,170m JOLCOs backed by Chinese ECA SINOSURE arranged for Seaspan Corporation.
Advised ING Bank N.V. as agent and security agent and ING Bank N.V., Tokyo Branch as bank and mandated lead arranger on a US$127m sustainability-linked JOLCO.
Advised Armada 98/2 Pte. Ltd., a joint venture between Shapoorji Pallonji and Bumi Armada, on the project documents and financing for the conversion, refurbishment, delivery and chartering of an FPSO for the KG 98/2 FPSO project offshore India.