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Global law firm King & Wood Mallesons has advised the arranger of a limited recourse fixed-rate notes issue backed by charter hire receivables from three container vessels flagged in Panama and Liberia ultimately owned by one of Asia’s leading leasing companies.
Firm: King & Wood Mallesons (the arranger). Other firms involved were Walkers (Cayman Islands and Guernsey), Ince (England), Hornung Avocats (Switzerland), Arias B. & Associates (Panama) and Seward & Kissel LLP (Liberia).
Area: Finance, corporate.
Key players: The King & Wood Mallesons team was led by partner Paul McBride, supported by Brian Sung, Charles Chung and Antonio Sousa. Partner Eddie Hu and associates Mengyu Ma and Jing Du advised on areas concerning Chinese law.
Another KWM team comprising partner Richard Mazzochi, Ian Hardee and Claire Potter advised the trustee.
KWM partners Stanley Zhou, Stella Wang and Angus Sip also acted on the transaction.
Deal significance: As per a statement provided by King & Wood Mallesons, the transaction took more than 12 months to complete “and involved eight jurisdictions, namely, England, Hong Kong SAR, mainland China, Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Panama and Liberia. KWM advised on the English, Hong Kong SAR and mainland Chinese aspects”.
“In addition to addressing the multi-jurisdictional components, complexities arose around structuring note level cash flow to provide for different vessel charter hire amounts and periods and potential vessel total loss events,” it said.
Commenting further, Mr McBride said: “We were delighted to assist on this novel transaction showcasing a blend of securitisation and asset finance technology achieving the desired off-balance sheet treatment for the originator.”
