Transport

We have over 300 specialist transport lawyers throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia, and a longstanding reputation for world-class expertise in the aviation, rail and shipping sectors.

We are supporting our clients through a time of considerable change involving consolidation, increased state investment and intensified funds and financing activity. In particular, we assist our clients in benefiting from connections between transport, real estate and infrastructure, in closing highly technical transactions and advising on future policy requirements. Together with our clients, we are charting the way ahead for transport.

We deliver:

• world-class asset finance specialists, in an axis that stretches from London to Moscow to Abu Dhabi to Singapore to Sydney, and all bases between
• market knowledge derived from decades of experience in the transport sector
• incisive market research
• experience of every form of finance and leasing structure used in recent years, including Islamic finance
• top-tier expertise in the financing and structuring of PPP
• expertise in debt financing and restructuring
• expertise in M&A transactions, joint ventures and other forms of co-operation in the transport sector
• guidance on antitrust, competition and international regulatory systems and controls
• a dedicated business ethics, reputational and risk management programme
• a global green economy team with access to policy-makers and key industry players
• specialist knowledge of sustainability, climate change, carbon finance, urban regeneration, ports, light rail, environmental, planning and health & safety developments
• dispute resolution specialists in shipping, aviation and rail
• world-class expertise in aircraft manufacturing
• crisis management
• experienced patent agents, including trained and experienced engineers and scientists

Our areas of work include:

• aviation
• rail
• shipping

Our recent work:

• Advising British Airways on the English law aspects of their merger with Iberia, creating a new leading European airline group with a new holding company known as International Airlines Group.
• Advising South African Express on the sale and leaseback of seven Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, representing the first time that South African Rand Merchant Bank and private banking clients of the FirstRand Group were prepared to lend into an operating lease structure to a South African aircraft operator. This deal won African Deal of the Year at the Airfinance Journal Awards 2012.
• Advising the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Barclays Bank plc (Barclays) on the restructuring of the Stansted Express syndicated financing arrangements in connection with the sale of Lloyds TSB Bank plc’s rail business to Macquarie Group.
• Advising Invensys Pension Trustee Limited in relation to the sale of Invensys’ Rail division to Siemens AG. The sale proceeds of the transaction will be used to make a £625m return of capital and a £625m payment to the Scheme (£400m in cash and £225m in escrow), with the remainder being retained by Invensys Plc.
• Advising The Swedish Club and the Owners of the vessel, in the high profile casualty in which the containership, “Rena”, ran aground in the Bay of Plenty with a subsequent spill of around 300 tonnes of fuel oil onto the local beaches.
• Advising a Coordinating Committee of five international banks (representing 14 banks in total) in the $3.5billion restructuring of Danaos Corporation, the making available of new money facilities of some $0.5billion, and the issue of a new series of corporate warrants to purchase an aggregate of 15million shares. This was on top of some $200 million of vendor finance from a major Korean shipbuilder, and $200million of new equity from new investors. All of this was carefully structured and layered into the transaction to bring it to a successful conclusion.

Awards and accolades:

• Legal House of the Year, 2012, Global Transport Finance Awards
• Asset Finance Legal Provider of the Year, 2011, Leasing Life Awards
• Legal House of the Year, 2010, 2011, Jane's Transport Finance Awards
• Law Firm of the Year, 2012, Airline Economics
• Best Islamic Project Finance Deal, 2013 (the financing and construction of the US$1.2 billion expansion of Madinah Airport), EuroMoney
• Middle East and Africa Infra Deal of the Year, 2012 (the US$1.2 billion expansion of Madinah Airport), Project Finance International
• Editor's Deal of the Year Award, 2012, AirFinance Journal Awards
• African Deal of the Year Award, 2012, AirFinance Journal Awards
• Latin American Deal of the Year Award, 2012, AirFinance Journal Awards
• Aviation Law Firm of the Year, 2012, Aviation 100