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We are very pleased to welcome Stephen Marais to our team of experienced Consultant Lawyers at nexa law. Stephen is a highly experienced finance lawyer with wide ranging expertise.
Stephen has over 20 years of experience in finance matters gained at major City law firms. He specialises in banking and asset finance and has extensive experience of acting on ship finance, project finance, trade finance and aviation finance matters. He has spent many years working on structured transactions, in particular export credit supported transactions, sale and leaseback transactions, tax driven arrangements and offshore structures, such as limited partnerships. Stephen also has a wealth of experience in general banking, consumer credit finance and corporate finance in the transportation sector.
Background
Stephen started his finance career in 1996 as a solicitor in the asset finance team at City firm Wilde Sapte (now Dentons) and went on to become a partner there. He has subsequently been a partner in the City firms DLA Piper, Ince and Co. and HFW. Stephen’s work has often had an international element and most recently has been the finance partner for HFW in their Shanghai office in China for the last couple of years.
Recent experience
Stephen’s recent experience includes:
Ship and other maritime finance
- Acting on numerous sale and leaseback transactions involving Chinese leasing companies lending to international shipping firms
- Acting on numerous syndicated and bilateral loan facilities
- Advising on container leasing facilities
- Advising on offshore limited partnership structures for a shipping fund
Other maritime matters
- Advising a shipping firm on a pooling agreement for their fleet of gas carriers
- Advising on multiple sale and purchase transactions, involving a wide range of ship registries, and including escrow arrangements
- Advising on various charter parties, including bareboat, time and voyage
- Advising on ship portfolio due diligence and the sale of ship loan portfolios
General banking
- Advising on general banking facilities, including term loans and revolving credit facilities
- Advising on all aspects of banking security documents and security risks
- Advising lenders and creditors on problem loan matters, including standstill and waiver agreements and enforcement
Corporate finance
- Advising a company on the corporate finance aspects of their multi-billion dollar acquisition of an international computing hardware business
Energy, project finance
- Advising a fund on the loan documentation and security aspects of the acquisition of solar panels for a solar power project in Africa
- Advising the shipping company on the structured financing of a FLNG vessel and its incorporation into a gas project off the coast of West Africa
- Working on various FSRU projects connected with energy projects in Egypt and various other countries
- Advising the Chinese state credit insurance company on the legal effectiveness of the loan and security documentation for a wide range of energy and offshore transactions
To find out more about Stephen’s expertise, click here.