James Hardy
Biography
Overview
James Hardy is a partner in the Firm's Banking Group in London. He is an emerging markets specialist with an 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. Product coverage includes: corporate and sovereign lending; the full spectrum of structured trade and commodity finance (including: commodity prepayments; pre-export finance; borrowing base; receivables purchase); other structured finance (including margin loans); acquisition-driven financing; 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 $73 billion in the emerging markets (of which over $15 billion in Africa and over $26 billion in the CIS and over $13 billion in Latin America), over $44 billion in the commodities sector and over $42 billion of acquisition-driven financings. He is noted in Legal 500 for Emerging Markets: Trade Finance; and Bank Lending: Investment Grade Debt & Syndicated Loans.
Experience
Afreximbank on: $650 million secured corporate loan financing to the Dangote Group; $750 million term loan financing to Bank of Industry Limited (Nigeria), structured with credit support from the Central Bank of Nigeria; and a range of other corporate and structured trade financings.
Trafigura on: confidential oil and metals prepayment financings for commodities sourced in Russia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere; and on secured borrowing base and other structured trade financings (including their up to $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 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020 core corporate syndicated facilities; a $225m hybrid off balance sheet trade receivables purchase program; and various structured, trade and corporate financings.
JP Morgan on the 'POEMS' transactions, innovative £3.5 billion financings that used mandatory exchangeable bonds issued by Volcan Holdings plc to finance the purchase of shares in Anglo American plc.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on: a $250m capital markets funded conduit structured term loan financing to Energoatom to fund nuclear storage facilities on the Chernobyl site; and $400million and $600million equivalent EUR term loan facilities arranged by Deutsche Bank and covered by a partial IBRD policy based guarantee.
Noble Group on the trade finance aspects of its financial restructuring, including its up to $700 million committed structured trade finance facility.
the arranger on a bespoke commodity financing to an African miner, with physical offtake, commodity hedging and loan-style financing all documented under ISDA terms.
Nostrum Oil & Gas group on up to $3 billion structured financing arranged by VTB Capital plc.
Umeme Limited and Actis LLP on up to $190 million DFI and commercial bank long term capex financing.
