FIRM BRIEFINGS INTERNATIONAL FIRMS Herbert Smith Freehills
2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions
Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Republic of), Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Highlight clients BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Perenco, BP, GDF Suez, Perenco
Key offices Paris, London, Tokyo (among others)
Most active disciplines
International arbitration, litigation, company and commercial, M&A and joint-ventures, asset finance, project finance (energy and IPP), regulatory and compliance, tax
Key sectors Mining and metals, oil and gas, power, ports, rail
Law capability English, French, Spanish
Key partners
Nina Bowyer, Stéphane Brabant, Anna Howell, Charles Kaplan, Martin Kavanagh
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) represents some of the biggest global energy companies and has worked on some vast projects in 2012. In 2013 the firm will be deepening its hold over West Africa with the launch of an office in Conakry, Guinea, on the back of a $10 billion iron ore project in the country for Rio Tinto. “It’s like clockwork working with them, extremely competent and
on the ball,” says an East African client. Clients recommend Stéphane Brabant and Nina Bowyer as “outstanding” and Rebecca Major (Tokyo) and Jonathan Mattout (Hong Kong/Paris) for corporate and compli- ance work, respectively. “I would rate them extremely highly,” says the client. Martin Kavanagh, Anna Howell, Hilary Lau, David Laurence, Bertrand Montembault and Charles Kaplan (disputes) all receive praise for their Africa related work. “HSF goes the extra mile… we depended a lot on the general knowledge from the background people,” says an- other client. The firm is multi-lingual and offers a deep bench in energy, oil and
gas, mining and energy infrastructure projects in particular and also advises clients on content requirements, resettlement and compensa- tion, social issues, environmental matters and compliance.
Matters Ted Greeno and James Bailey led a large team to represent West African Gas Pipeline Company on a claim of over $300 million relating to EPC contract obligations against Willbros Global Holdings in the English High Court. The case was settled in 2012. The firm was also represent- ing Standard Chartered Bank in ICSID arbitration against Tanzania relating to bilateral investment treaty obligations. Martin Kavanagh, Nina Bowyer and Adrian Clough were advising
CPCS Transcom Limited and the Nigerian Bureau of Public Enter- prises on the privatization of Nigeria’s power sector. The firm has also been busy in Nigeria upstream oil & gas sector on a high value acqui- sition and for BP in an acquisition Namibia’s upstream sector. In financing, the firm assisted the African Development Bank and
other lenders on a $275 million infrastructure project financing to the Lagos Cable Car Transit project (Nigeria) and Stanbic on a $150 mil- lion wind farm financing in Kenya. For Rio Tinto, Stéphane Brabant, Christophe Lefort, Nicholas Heurzeau, Sébastien Gaudu and others
have been working on all aspects (construction, projects, social impact, regulatory) on the $10 billion Simanou iron ore project.
Hogan Lovells
2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions
Burundi, DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe
Highlight clients
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, African Export-Import Bank
Key offices London, Paris, Dubai, Shanghai, Washington, Rio de Janeiro, Beijing, Singapore
Most active disciplines
International arbitration, litigation, equity capital markets, M&A and joint-ventures, private equity and funds, commodities trading and derivatives, project finance (energy and infrastructure), EPC, competition
Key sectors Mining and metals, oil and gas, power, ports, roads
Law capability
English, French, US, Spanish, African dual-qualified lawyers in various countries
Key partners Andrew Gamble
Andrew Gamble heads the Africa practice at Hogan Lovells, which boasts a wide scope both in terms of its international reach – with Africa practice leaders scattered across the globe – but also in terms of the work it undertakes. Examples of recent matters include instructions from Middle East clients, West Africa related arbitration cases and lender mandates from DFIs, among others, though the firm has been especially busy in West Africa in the oil and gas sectors. The team operates with informal relationships throughout the region
and also manages a secondment programme with the ALN. Its dispute partners have undertaken pro-bono work for the Kigali International Arbitration Centre in Rwanda, which hopes to promote Rwanda as a regional arbitration centre, while the firm as a whole has worked with the governments of Guinea, Sao Tome & Principe and Liberia and col- laborated with the Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) in the context of legal training for the development of Liberia’s public institutions and mining and agricultural concession agreements.
Matters John Meltzer was busy acting as defence counsel for an oil company against a group action claim for damages in West Africa before the Eng- lish courts, while Simon Nesbitt and Jerome Finnis were acting the Federal High Court of Nigeria in an international arbitration involving oil and gas rights. On the corporate side Steven Bryan and Ben Higson led teams ad-
vising publicly listed South African based Coal of Africa on an institu- tional investment to raise $45 million, a $60 million debt and equity financing and $100 million share placement to a subsidiary of Beijing Haohua Energy Resource. The work was done in conjunction with JP Morgan Cazenove. Bryan was also assisting the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) in relation to the Kudu gas-to- power project, specifically on a farm-in deal with Eco Oil & Gas and Serica Energy. A significant finance project saw James Gede, Andrew Gallagher,
Paul Dillbeck and Alex Harrison advise the Abu Dhabi National En- ergy Company (TAQA) in relation to the construction and develop-
ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | SUB SAHARAN AFRICA 2013 17
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