James Hardy is a partner in the Firm's Banking Group in London. He is an emerging markets specialist and a versatile and experienced banking lawyer 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, including: pre-export finance, prepayment and other receivables-based structures; borrowing base; other trade and commodity finance structures; margin loans; loan-on-loan financing; structured financing (especially derivative-linked); acquisition finance (leveraged buy-out and event-driven corporate financing); sovereign lending; hybrid corporate / project finance structures; multi-source financing (bank and bond debt); 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 $48.5 billion in the emerging markets, over $31 billion in the commodities sector and over $41 billion of acquisition-driven financings. He is noted in Legal 500 for trade finance.
Experience
Trafigura on a number of 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 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 2015, 2016 and 2017 $1.25bn core corporate syndicated facilities; on a $225m hybrid off balance sheet trade receivables purchase program; and on 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.
Stanbic Kenya and The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited on senior term loan and working capital financing for an East African corporate, one of the first senior-mezzanine financings in the region.
Afreximbank on a range of corporate, acquisition-driven and structured trade finance transactions.
the arranger on a bespoke commodity financing structure 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 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.
