James Hardy is a senior associate in the firm's Banking Group in London. He is a versatile and experienced banking lawyer with established track record of advising both lenders and borrowers on a diverse range of financing arrangements in mature and (especially) developing or frontier markets throughout the financial cycle, including: acquisition finance (leveraged buy out and event-driven corporate financing); pre-export finance, prepayment and other receivables-based structures; borrowing base, margin loans and loan-on-loan financing; sovereign lending; hybrid corporate / project finance structures; multi-source financing (bank and bond debt); derivative-linked; restructuring; and refinancing.
James sits on the LMA's documentation committee for both Developing Markets and Commodity Finance and has advised on financings with a value of over $42 billion in the emerging markets, over $26 billion in the commodities sector and over $40 billion of acquisition-driven financings.
Experience
Trafigura on up to US$2 billion refined metals borrowing base financing from a syndicate co-ordinated by Deutsche Bank. "Best Commodity Working Capital Deal of the Year 2015", Trade & Export Finance.
Puma Energy on its new 2016 US$800 million revolving credit facilities and the extension of the 3 year tranches of its 2015 $1.25bn corporate facilities.
Actera and Esas on up to US€410 million LBO financing in connection with their acquisition of Un Ro-Ro İşletmeleri A.Ş. from KKR.
Nostrum Oil & Gas group on up to US$3 billion structured financing arranged by VTB Capital plc.
Umeme Limited and Actis LLP on up to US$190 million DFI and commercial bank capex financing.
Credit Suisse on up to €100 million financing to Montenegro, supported by a World Bank guarantee.
BNP Paribas (Suisse) SA and UniCredit in connection with up to US$125 million secured financing to the Kernel group.
ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch in connection with the US$4.5 billion acquisition bridge financing to UC Rusal for the acquisition of a stake in Norilsk Nickel and subsequent debt recovery.
