“Roland Arlt was the calm and reliable hand who […] was able to not only explain complex topics patiently and constructively, but also to suggest solutions, even late at night.”
Biography
Dr. Roland Arlt advises banks, funds, financial institutions, sponsors, borrowers and investors on loans, bonds and securitizations as well as on financial restructurings.
His main areas of practice are project finance and project development in particular in the energy and infrastructure sector (including onshore and offshore wind and solar farms, battery energy storage system (BESS) financings, data centre financings and green ammonia and green hydrogen projects), asset finance, real estate finance, acquisition finance, corporate lending, venture debt financings (including ARR financings and growth capital financings), structured credit, securitization, loan agency and loan servicing (including special servicing and NPL servicing), financial restructuring and bonds.
Furthermore, Roland Arlt is a lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
He joined White & Case in 2022. Previously he worked, among others, for a domestic commercial law firm, for a US international law firm and for a UK international law firm in Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, London, Milan and Rome.
Experience
Selected experience:
Assisting a consortium of leading international lenders, including CIBC, ING Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, SMBC, SEB and UniCredit, on a complex financing structure of up to €1.6 billion for CEE RF9, Germany's largest repowering fund, supporting a portfolio of 45 wind and solar projects in Germany and France and an increase in installed capacity from 457 MW(p) to approximately 1.1 GW(p).
Assisting a banking consortium led by KfW IPEX-Bank and IKB Deutsche Industriebank on the syndicated €1 billion financing for BEW Berliner Energie und Wärme GmbH, supporting transformation projects (with a total prioritized project volume of approximately €1.6 billion) to make Berlin's district heating climate neutral, combining long-term KfW promotional conditions with facilities from a nine-bank consortium and maturities of up to 20 years.
Assisting Hamburg Commercial Bank AG (HCOB) on the financing of a portfolio of three large battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Germany with a total storage capacity of around 100 MWh for ju:niz Energy GmbH, an EQT portfolio company, with HCOB acting as lender, agent, account and hedging bank.
Assisting a German institutional investor on the secured €110 million merchant financing for construction and operation of the 198 MW solar portfolio of Ellomay Capital in Italy, structured through senior secured bonds issued in multiple tranches during construction.
Assisting a banking syndicate on the expansion of the secured infrastructure financing of Glasfaser Nordwest GmbH & Co. KG (a joint venture between Telekom Deutschland and EWE AG) to a total of €1.4 billion, via a €600 million accordion facility, following the firm's advice on the initial €800 million financing round.
Assisting a bank syndicate on the refinancing of Energy Infrastructure Partners' (EIP) 25 percent investment in the Arkona offshore wind farm (385 MW, German Baltic Sea), structured as a HoldCo financing comprising a long-term loan, debt service reserve and letter of credit facilities.
Assisting a banking syndicate on the €2.6 billion refinancing of MEYER WERFT and the reorganization of its financing structure, comprising revolving cash loans, guarantee facilities, hybrid lines and promissory note loans due by the end of 2028, alongside the federal government and State of Lower Saxony's acquisition of around 80 percent of MEYER WERFT's shares.
Assisting the lenders on the financing of a 940 MWp portfolio of nine solar farms in Western Macedonia, Greece, held by Meton Energy (a joint venture between RWE Renewables Europe & Australia and PPC Renewables), funded through commercial loans and EU NextGenerationEU Recovery and Resilience Facility funds.
Assisting a banking consortium on the €330 million project financing of LEAG's Leipheim gas-fired power plant (300 MW), one of four German grid stabilization plants built following the closure of nuclear plants and the coal phase-out, provided on the basis of an operating agreement with Siemens Energy.
Assisting the German Branch of an international credit institution in connection with a €15.15 million project financing of a portfolio of rooftop solar systems.
Assisting a Luxembourg-based fund as arranger and lender under a structured credit to a German borrower in the automotive sector.
Assisting the agent and security agent in connection with multiple acquisition financings.
Assisting the credit servicer in connection with the NPL serving of a €20 million real estate financing under the German Secondary Credit Market Act (Kreditzweitmarktgesetz).
Professional Highlights
Arlt, Roland: True Sale Securitisation with particular reference to German and Italian Law (True Sale Securitisation unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rechtslage in Deutschland und Italien), in: Habersack/Mülbert/Schneider (eds.), Studies on Saving, Giro and Credit Business (Untersuchungen über das Spar-, Giro- und Kreditwesen), volume 181, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 2009
Co-author: Unlimited Amendment Options and Credit Decisions via Restructuring Plan? Short Commentary to the Judgement of the Local Court of Cologne ZInsO 2021, 868 (Unbegrenzte Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten bei Konsortialkreditverträgen und Kreditentscheidungen per Restrukturierungsplan? Kurzanmerkung zu AG Köln ZInsO 2021, 868). In: ZInsO, No. 24, 2021, pages 1485-1487 (with Tom Brägelmann and Jan Ludwig)
Arlt, Roland: Sustainability Linked Loans pursuant to the Sustainability Linked Loan Principles (Nachhaltigkeitsdarlehen nach den Sustainability Linked Loan Principles), BKR, No. 10, 2019, pages 477-484
Arlt, Roland: OFAC Clauses in Finance Documents in the light of the Anti Boycott Provision of Section 7 of the Foreign Trade Ordinance and the Blocking Statutes (OFAC-Klauseln in Finanzierungsverträgen vor dem Hintergrund des Boykottverbots gem. § 7 der Außenwirtschaftsverordnung und der Blocking Statutes), ZIP, No. 46, 2015, pages 2202-2211
Arlt, Roland: Legal Aspects of the Risk Retention in Securitisations pursuant to Sections 18a and 18b of the German Banking Act (Rechtsfragen des Risikoselbstbehalts bei Verbriefungen nach §§ 18a und 18b KWG), WM, No. 3, 2012, pages 107-115