Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has recently advised on a club deal involving ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Touax Container Asset Financing Limited. The firm advised ABN AMRO Bank N.V. in its roles as arranger and facility agent for itself, ING Belgium SA/NV and NIBC Bank N.V. as lenders, and Touax Container Asset Financing Limited in its role as borrower, in relation to a US$115.5 million term loan, revolving credit and working capital facilities agreement.
The borrower is part of the Touax Group, a group of leading companies involved in leasing, managing and trading marine containers.
The term loans facility refinances the borrower’s existing portfolio of containers, while the revolving credit facility finances new containers which will be acquired by the borrower for fleet growth and the working capital facility finances the borrower's containers trading activities. The aggregate amount for the initial total commitments by the lenders – a syndicate of three international banks, ABN AMRO Bank N.V., ING Belgium SA/NV and NIBC Bank N.V. – is US$100.5 million, and there are accordion options to increase the revolving credit facility by an aggregate of US$15 million.
“This facility refinances the existing facility, on which we also advised two years ago,” said Shaun Park, partner, Stephenson Harwood. “This was a relatively complex transaction, involving entities based in Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong and France, and drew on our cross-border expertise and the international reach of our maritime finance specialists.”
The Stephenson Harwood team advising ABN AMRO Bank N.V. was led by London-based partner Shaun Park, who was supported by associate Joanna Tuft and paralegal Kelly Anastasiadou, while the team advising Touax Container Asset Financing Limited was led by Paris-based partner Jeremy Grant, who was supported by associates Cloe Nguyen and Maria Miller, and legal assistant Victoire Bouttevin.