Fernando Navarro

Partner, Madrid

Biography

Overview

Fernando Navarro is a partner in the EMEA Banking Team and head of the Madrid Banking Group.

His practice focuses on a wide variety of Spanish and English Law financing transactions through syndicated and bilateral loans, acting for both lenders and borrowers, as well as on derivatives, structured products, securitization and DCM. He is also active in restructuring, representing for numerous Spanish and international banks and funds.

With a particular focus on leverage and acquisition finance, Fernando has as well vast experience in asset finance, trade finance, aviation finance and project finance.

Fernando is highly recommended as a Banking lawyer by Chambers where he is mentioned as being capable to translate "questions of great legal and technical complexity to a commercial and easily intelligible level" and by IFLR1000 where is rated as “highly regarded”. Fernando is also mentioned as a "Leading individual" by Legal 500 in its last edition.

Bars and Courts
England & Wales (Solicitor)
Spain (Abogado)
Education
Bachelor of Laws
Legal and Business Administration
Universidad San Pablo CEU

Madrid

The College of Law

London, courses for QLTT

IESE Business School

Program on Management for Law Firms

Languages
Spanish
English

Experience

Examples of his recent representative experience includes:

  • Representation of the lenders on the financing of Stirling Square Capital Partners for the acquisition extended to Grupo GTT.
  • Representation of the lenders in connection to a proposed multi-lender, export credit agency backed project financing for the construction of Queensland's MacIntyre Wind Farm. The project will be part of a 1026-megawatt wind farm precinct alongside CleanCo (the Queensland Government's renewable energy generator) with a total investment of $1.96 billion.
  • Representation of the lenders (Banco Santander, S.A. and Kommunalkredit Austria AG) on a € 170 million financing relating to the acquisition by Ancala Partners, LLP of part of Babcock International Group PLC’s aerial emergency services business. 
  • Representation of Swiss Life Asset Managers and AXA investment Managers on the financing for the acquisition of Lyntia Networks from Antin Infrastructure Partners. 
  • Representation of the arrangers in connection with the financing by ICG of the acquisition of Comdata and combination with Konecta, leaders in Customer Experience (CX) Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) solutions. The financing involved a €975 million credit facility, comprising a TLB facility, TLA facility and revolving credit facility.
  • Representation of Angelo Gordon Europe LLP and funds advised by PIMCO as lead lenders in a 760€ million syndicated refinancing of Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (BME: PRS). The financing involved a €575 million senior facilities agreement and a €185 million second lien facilities agreement, both implemented by way of cashless roll on behalf of the lenders under the original facility. Both facilities were used to finance or refinance the existing indebtedness of the Group.
  • Banco Santander, S.A. (Santander) on the financing of the acquisition of Grupo Euskal Forging, S.L. and its subsidiaries by Siderforgerossi Group S.p.A. (Siderforgerossi).
  • Representation of the senior lenders, including multilateral lenders, development finance institutions and a syndicate of commercial banks, BNDES (Brazil´s national development bank) in the project financing of the approximately US$ 3 billion Sao Paulo Metro Line 6 in Brazil. This is the first-ever limited recourse financing of an infrastructure PPP project in Brazil by BNDES and is currently the larges PP project under construction in Latin America.
  • Blackstone Credit in relation to the financing of the merger of Photobox and Albelli, which are owned by Exponent and Gilde respectively.
  • Crédit Agricole-CIB with an interbank minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) facility to be extended to Novobanco.
  • Babcock Mission Critical Services, S.A.U. in the issuance of a Spanish law capacity legal opinion with regard to a lease agreement of different aircrafts.
  • Representation of Tink AB, a leading open banking platform provider, in connection with a secured facility for an amount of €110M extended ahead of Tink AB´s sale to Visa.
  • Bank of America Europe Designated Activity Company in relation to an amendment agreement of a revolving credit facility for an initial maximum amount of 100,000,000 (current € 60 million) entered into on 1 July 2016 by Repsol, S.A. as borrower and Bank of America as lender. 
Publications
  • La financiación de procedimientos judiciales, ¿una modalidad que ha llegado para quedarse? La Ley Mercantil, May 2015
  • Posibles efectos prácticos del convenio de Ciudad del Cabo sobre operaciones de financiación de elementos de equipo aeronáutico españoles. La Ley Diario, February 2015
  • El pacto comisorio en el actual marco de los derechos de garantía. La Ley Diario, May 2014
  • Direct lending: ¿qué, cuándo y cómo? Cuatrecasasblog.com, February 2014
  • Trend to high-yield bonds. International Financial Law Review IFLR, May 2013
  • Fondo para la financiación de los pagos a proveedores. Anuario mercantil para abogados, 2013
  • Implicaciones prácticas de la prenda de derechos de crédito configurada como prenda sin desplazamiento tras la reforma de la Ley Concursal introducida por la Ley 38/2011, de 10 de octubre. La Ley Diario, December 2012
  • Fund for financing payments to suppliers. International Financial Law Review IFLR, 26 September 2012
  • Financing payments to suppliers of local entities and autonomous regions. Financierworldwide.com, August 2012
Awards and Recognition

Banking & Finance

  • Leading Individual: The Legal 500 2021
  • Recommended (Band 3): Chambers and Partners Global 2021
  • Recommended (Band 3): Chambers and Partners Europe 2021