June update

It has been a busy time for us here at Trinity, having secured new instructions across a variety of sectors in the past few months, including four new PPP road projects in Nigeria (acting for the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development) and a series of toll road projects in Zambia (acting for a bidding consortium). We have also been instructed in relation to new independent power projects, most notably another project in Kenya.

In the last few weeks we closed the acquisition by a development finance institution client of a major shareholding in the development of a 340MW CCGT power plant in Ghana. We will continue to act for the project company on the development of the project in order to help it achieve successful financial close.

We hope in the next few weeks to close the acquisition of a significant wind farm asset in West Africa and the refinancing of one of Africa’s leading infrastructure debt funds (where we act for several major development finance institutions).

In addition to this, we continue to act for the African Development Bank and fellow lenders in relation to the 300MW Lake Turkana wind farm project and are being kept busy on renewable power transactions in Romania, Cyprus and Spain as well as across all parts of the African continent.

To help us sustain our growth, we recruited Tamila Nakazwe as a paralegal earlier in May. Tamila is a Zambian national and has worked previously at the Central Bank of Zambia and at the African Development Bank. We welcome Tamila to the Trinity team.

As for this month’s articles, Trinity partner Patrick Leece writes on the state of transport projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Patrick was instrumental in advising the sponsors and project company to bring the Lekki-Epe Expressway toll road project in Lagos, Nigeria to close, and he sets out a comprehensive viewpoint on what is required to deliver effective transport projects in this part of the world.

Associate Guy Jolly gives us a welcome update on the new UK Bribery Act, which finally came into force in April 2010. It is crucial for clients acting in any foreign jurisdiction (or foreign companies doing business in the UK) to be aware of the offences and the seriousness with which they will be treated.

As ever, if you have any comments or questions about Focus, or generally, please get in touch.