Global, sector-focused law firm HFW has advised the lenders on a US$300 million financing for commodity trading company Trafigura.
HFW advised MUFG Bank as facility agent and a club of lenders comprising Citi, Credit Agricole and Société Générale on a limited recourse term loan to finance Trafigura’s procurement of copper cathodes from the Swiss trading arm of Russian mining group Norilsk Nickel.
HFW acted as English, Swiss and Singapore counsel to the lenders on the transaction, working alongside its Singapore association firm AsiaLegal.
The HFW team was led by Olivier Bazin in the firm’s Geneva office and also included Anne-Marie Pearce, Cassandra Gridi, Francis Walters and AsiaLegal’s Juliana Yap.
Integrites acted as Russian counsel to the lenders.
Olivier Bazin, Partner, HFW:
“We worked on several of bank-financed commodity prepays in 2019, and we were delighted to partner again with MUFG and Trafigura to execute this one right before year end. It was a true team effort.”
HFW has one of the market’s leading commodities practices, with more than 80 specialist lawyers across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
The team advise clients across all areas of the commodities industry, including physical supply, transportation, OTC and exchange-traded derivatives, digital trade, insurance, operations, compliance, sanctions, regulation, and trade and structured finance.
HFW previously advised MUFG Bank on a US$250 million facility for Trafigura, which won TXF’s Commodity Trader Finance Deal of the Year award.
