Samay Shah

Samay is a member of our infrastructure, energy and natural resources practice and financing practice. His financing practice covers general bank finance and corporate treasury work, acquisition and leveraged finance and project finance, as well as restructurings. He also has broad experience advising on corporate and commercial transactions and projects in the infrastructure, energy and natural resources sectors.

Infrastructure

• The National Wealth Fund on:
  • a £50 million loan to Portsmouth Water, it’s first investment in the UK water sector
  • a guaranteed tranche as part of a broader debt package to support the development of AESC’s gigafactory in the North East of England
• The National Wealth Fund on:
  • on a dual guarantee structure to guarantee up to £150,000,000 to support The Housing Finance Corporation
  • a guarantee of up to £400,000,000 to Lloyds Banking Group
  • a guarantee of up to £350,000,000 to Barclays UK Corporate Bank

in each case in relation to loans to registered providers for the purpose of retrofitting social housing in the UK.

• Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) on:
  • the acquisition of a 40% stake in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport from the GMR Group, taking MAHB’s holding from 20% to 60%
  • the acquisition of a further 40% stake in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport from the Limak Group, taking MAHB’s holding to 100%
  • the sale of its 10% equity stake in Delhi International Airport Private Limited, the company that operates New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

Digital Infrastructure

• Equinix on various transactions, including its expansion into Africa through the $320m acquisition of MainOne
• The National Wealth Fund on:
  • a £60 million loan as part of a £120 million debt package to support Pacific Green in its development of a new 249 MW / 373.5 MWh electricity storage park in Kent
  • its £200 million loan as a cornerstone lender in CityFibre’s £4.9bn financing programme to support the roll out of full fibre broadband across the UK
  • its £125 million term loan and £100 million debt guarantee to support Quickline Communication’s large-scale broadband expansion

Oil & Gas, Power and Renewables

• Aker Horizons on its acquisition of Mainstream Renewable Power
• VPI on a number of financing transactions relating to its portfolio of gas turbine power plants (both in development and in operation), including:
  • Castlelost Flex Gen Limited, a joint venture between VPI and Lumcloon Energy, in relation to its €167,050,000 facility for the development of a 275 MW open cycle gas turbine power plant in County Westmeath, Ireland
  • A £67,800,000 construction term facility and £5,000,000 revolving facility for the development of a 299MW Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT) Power Station and a 50MW Gas Reciprocating Engine Power Station, both located at Immingham, North Lincolnshire
• Alunorte on its sustainability-linked credit facility which supports its fuel switch project in Brazil
• Various clients on reserves based loan and borrowing base financings
• Attarat Power Company and the project sponsors, Eesti Energia AS and YTL Power International Berhad, on the approximately $1.6 billion project financing and development of a 554MW oil shale-fired power plant at Attarat um Ghudran, Jordan
• YTL Power International Berhad (YTL) on the sell-down of a part of Eesti Energia AS’s equity stake in Attarat Power Company to YTL and to incoming investor Guangdong Yudean Group Co. Limited and the related shareholder arrangements
• INEOS FPS Limited, owners of the Forties Pipeline System, on the refinancing of its term loan and revolving credit facilities agreement

Mining

• The Government of the Republic of Botswana on the renegotiation of its arrangements with the De Beers group (including a new 10-year sales agreement) in respect of rough diamonds produced by the Debswana mining joint venture

Carbon Markets

• The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) on legal issues relating to developing and promoting the first global threshold benchmark for high-quality carbon credits

Corporate lending and debt capital markets

• Vitol SA on a number of financing transactions
• BHP on the financing aspects of the unification of its dual-listed company structure
• BHP on various financing transactions and treasury matters
• Norsk Hydro ASA on the establishment of its EUR 5 billion EMTN programme (containing optionality to issue green notes and sustainability-linted notes)
• Norsk Hydro ASA on the placement of new senior unsecured sustainability-linked bonds in an amount of NOK 3,000 million
• Yara International ASA on various financing transactions
• UPM on various financing transactions, including its EUR 750 million sustainability-linked revolving credit facility involving both biodiversity and climate targets
• Diageo on the update of and issuance under its European Debt Issuance Programme

Restructuring

• Valaris – a leading offshore drilling service provider- on its $7.1 billion
• Seadrill Limited – a leading offshore drilling contractor - on its comprehensive restructuring plan, involving secured credit facilities totalling $5.7 billion of outstanding debt and delivering $1.06 billion of new capital