Ian Clements > Dentons > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Dentons has a commodities, trade and upstream finance practice that has ‘business acumen, a pragmatic approach and an awareness of the customer’s need and this makes a real difference‘. Ian Clements, who handles syndicated and bilateral borrowing base, pre-export and structured prepayment financings as well as bilateral transactionally secured trade finance facilities, leads the practice following the departure of Tim Pipe  to Clyde & Co . Clements acted for the Ghana Cocoa Board in the pre-export financing of Ghana’s 2022/23 cocoa crop with a potential value of $1.3bn. He also assisted ING Bank with the €365m refinancing of a secured uncommitted borrowing base facility based on Green Loan Principles. Key partner Simon Prendergast is an asset-based lending expert with significant experience in advising both lenders and corporate borrowers on cross-border transactions.

Dentons is ‘very well versed in DCM and has experts on every topic‘, though its emerging markets work extends beyond bond issuance and restructuring. The London team leverages the firm’s global office network to handle market-leading projects and financings in Africa, the Middle East, the CEE and CIS regions, as well as Latin America. Head of banking and finance Paul Holland leads the emerging markets group in London. He recently acted for HSBC Bank plc, co-ordinating local counsel in Finland and Brazil, in a secured $780m buyer credit facility for a major Brazilian paper and pulp producer. Debt capital markets partner Nick Hayday ‘instils confidence in clients, is a safe in his hands‘. He advised CPI Property Group on a €700m sustainability-linked bond offering. Debt capital markets specialists Cameron Half and David Cohen  also play key roles in the practice. Half is a key adviser to Hidroelectrica S.A. and assisted the client with its proposed €2bn IPO and listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Derivatives and structured debt partner Matthew Sapte and trade and export finance specialist Ian Clements are frequently involved in emerging markets transactions, and Dominic Spacie advises banks, institutional investors, development finance institutions, contractors, and government entities on international PPP, PFI and concession-based infrastructure-related projects. John Inglis, formerly of Shearman & Sterling LLP, joined as a consultant.