Think DM, Think Contemporary Law Firm

Practical experience

Ian is a seasoned corporate banking and finance lawyer with extensive experience in handling high-value, multi-jurisdictional transactions. Ian specializes in a wide array of financial and corporate matters, including acquisition finance, corporate banking, development finance, debt capital markets, investor services, and project finance.

Ian’s career highlights include:

• Serving as the Director and Head of Corporate M&A of an international law firm where he led high-profile transactions and played a critical role in the firm’s expansion into African markets.
• He has successfully assisted investment banks with transactions across the African jurisdiction and offshore alike. He has also successfully assisted financial institutions and state-owned enterprises with their corporate fraud investigations.
• His notable achievements include successfully advising on the listing of $200 million notes on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, managing the financing of major infrastructure projects in Namibia, and leading the legal efforts in the establishment of a new national energy company for the CEF Ltd in South Africa.
• Ian advised a potential buyer on competition law matters in relation to a 36MW solar photovoltaic power plant in Namibia. He also acted as legal counsel to law firms in advising them on competition law matters impacting them in the legal industry.
• Ian successfully advised the CEF Ltd (as part of a consortium of legal advisers and lead the corporate and commercial stream) on a lease and assignment of all its upstream and downstream assets. The transaction spanned across three jurisdictions.
• Advised the issuer on the admission and listing of GBP 1,000,000,000 bonds on The International Stock Exchange, Guernsey.
• Advised as borrower lead counsel on a revolving credit facility of GBP 60,000,000 for a Guernsey based fund to be utilized as expansion capital. Acted as lead counsel for the Royal Bank of Scottland (Guernsey Branch) in the financing of an acquisition by the borrower of three entities in three different offshore jurisdictions.
• Ian advised a development finance bank in Africa with respect to the development of solar and wind farms with the latest transaction being a roof-top solar installation project on 9 different sites and that will in aggregate be capable of generating circa 35 MW capacity.
• Ian has assisted clients in the real estate sector, and a more notable transaction being one where he acted as lead counsel for a borrower in Namibia, which saw the Borrower securing USD 250 million for general working capital requirements.
• Ian also acted as lead counsel for an investment bank in Namibia in relation to a revolving credit facility of USD 50 million that the bank made available to an international mining house with operations in Namibia.

Area of expertise

• Corporate and Commercial Law
• Banking and Finance
• Debt Capital Markets and Project Finance
• Energy, Infrastructure and Mining Law
• Competition Law and Compliance

Qualifications

• Admitted and practising Attorney (2007)
• Admitted Notary Public (2012)
• Bachelor of Law (LLB)
• Certificate in Syndicated Loans