Focus – April 2024

Welcome to the Spring 2024 edition of Focus.

Trinity is proud to be a supporter of the inaugural Johannesburg Arbitration Week, which takes place from 9 to 11 April 2024. Bringing together arbitrators and arbitration practitioners from across Africa and worldwide, the conference will be a great opportunity to discuss the current themes that are shaping and transforming dispute resolution in Africa. Partner Natasha Peter is participating and is due to speak on a panel on “The Africanisation of Arbitration”. She looks forward to seeing many of our clients there, and, without wishing a dispute on anyone, some of our future clients too.

Green hydrogen is increasingly becoming the fuel of choice to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Our newest Partner, Lucy Johnson, explores the political risks of green hydrogen projects in emerging markets in our main article this season here .

One of the interesting parts of practice across multiple jurisdictions is to see the development of new laws and regulations, particularly in the emerging economies and sectors in which we practice, where the legal context may not be as developed as it is in Europe and North America. On this theme, associates Alexis Giroulet and Maha Sary explain the new electricity law in Burundi here.

In Trinity news, we are very pleased to have expanded our team quite significantly over the past few months. Lucy Johnson’s promotion to Partner is now effective. In Paris, we have new Associates: Maha Sary, Yalda Khalifé, Yassine Allam, Sina Abadie and Lucas Aichelmann. We look forward to announcing several new arrivals in London very soon. We are also glad to be hosting interns: Lucas Sadok and Mama-Sahale Souaré. We have also been joined by a new consultant, Sarah Smit, who, as many of our clients know, is a senior lawyer with many years’ experience of financing transactions in emerging economies.

In Deal News, over the first calendar quarter, since the last edition of Focus, we have been delighted to advise our clients in reaching the following milestones:

• We advised Triodos and OikoCredit on their equity investment in ARC Power Rwanda Limited, a company based in Rwanda which is developing low and medium power electricity networks and minigrids within Rwanda. 
• Trinity advised Meridiam in closing an equity financing solution for Meridiam’s acquisition of Kipeto PLC, the second largest operating wind power project in Kenya, providing clean power to 250 000 homes. The financing was provided by Standard Bank.
• Following our advice to Norfund, the Norwegian development finance institution, along with Kommunal Landspensjonskasse, a Norwegian pension fund, in respect of the financing of a continuation vehicle established by CEC’s existing shareholder Affirma Capital which will hold Affirma’s existing  36.34% stake in CEC, we advised the same clients on the conversion of their financing into equity in the continuation vehicle.
• We advised Rawbank, FBNBank DRC SA and Absa Corporate and Investment Banking on an innovative mining financing provided to Kamoa Copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 200 million dollars financing will support phase 3 of the Kamoa mine expansion project, which will produce around 600,000 tonnes of ore and generate an additional 178 megawatts (MW) of clean hydroelectric power for the national grid.
• Trinity advised Eni on the completion of the sale to Perenco of Eni’s participation interest in several upstream permits in Congo, non-core to the Company strategy in the Country, after having obtained the approval of relevant authorities. We worked in liaison with Thierry Mamimoue at AfrikaBlue for Congolese law advice.
• Trinity advised STOA, an impact fund created in 2017 by the Caisse des Dépôts and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) investing in infrastructure and energy in emerging and developing countries, in relation with the entering into of a memorandum of understanding regarding a proposed investment in NetZero, the French company pioneer in the long-term sequestration of atmospheric carbon in soils through biochar. The transaction relates to a total proposed investment of €18 million and should allow NetZero to industrialize its technology and to deploy its sites on a large scale in tropical countries, with a view to sequestrate more than 5 million tonnes of COZ in aggregate, from now and until 2030. NetZero is a Milestone Award winner of Musk Foundation’s XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, a recipient of the “Efficient Solution” label from Solar Impulse Foundation, a Green Tech prize winner of the Tech for Good Awards, and a certified carbon-removal project under the Puro Standard.
• Trinity is proud to have advised ACWA Power on a public-private partnership agreement with the Republic of Senegal and Senegal’s national water company for the financing, construction, operation and maintenance of 400,000 m³/day desalination plant north of Dakar. This landmark SD 800 million investment will bring clean drinking water to millions of people and contribute to Senegal’s sustainable development goals. Trinity worked with the support of Alioune Mboup from Mame Adama Gueye and Partners on Senegalese law aspects.
• Trinity advised the lenders – Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) – a fund managed by Cygnum Capital – and Proparco, in relation to a facility to AktivCo Madagascar, a subsidiary of AktivCo SAS in Madagascar. This financing is an addition to the EUR 100 million debt package provided by the existing lenders group (FEI, Proparco, Norfund and AfricaGoGreen) in 2022 and 2023 to the AktivCo Group and its subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Senegal. This commitment of the lenders to support further the growth of AktivCo to respond to the growing demand from the telecom sector for sustainable energy. 
  AktivCo is an energy services company (ESCO) and a fully owned subsidiary of Camusat Group, a global player for the roll-out of telecom networks. AktivCo SAS provides energy solutions to telecom network operators in Africa, including the construction of renewable energy power plants for telecom towers to replace polluting diesel generators. Trinity advised the lenders in liaison with Sahondra Rabenarivo from ALN Madagascar for Malagasy law advice.
• Trinity advise the Asian Development Bank and the Government of the Maldives in respect of the development of renewable energy tenders to be launched by The Government of Maldives. The first tender was launched in March 2024, for a 12.5MW ground mounted and rooftop solar project, planned for the outer islands. The developer will benefit from ADBs investment in new and upgraded transmission and battery storage facilities on each of the islands, through the Accelerating Sustainable System Development Using Renewable Energy (ASSURE) project, plus financial incentives for the project being offered through Asia-Pacific Climate Finance Fund, a multi-donor trust fund. The objective of the fund is to support the development and implementation of financial risk management products that can help unlock capital for climate investments and improve resilience to the impact of climate change. The project will be the largest private sector led project in the energy sector in Maldives in terms of capacity and investments and is aimed at reducing the Islands’ reliance on fossil fuels and helping combat the impacts of climate change on the climate vulnerable Islands. Trinity has a world-leading practice in the development and financing of innovative power solutions in island nations

 .