Profil complet

Ian has been working in the Middle East since 2008 where he specialises in corporate, restructuring and finance work in the offshore marine (oil & gas), international trade & commodities and shipping & transportation sectors.

Ian has acted on many major transactions involving the marine sector in the UAE and  is frequently consulted on restructurings of maritime companies and groups.

Ian acts for Middle Eastern and international financiers, with a specialist focus on financing offshore shipping assets.  He also acts for offshore marine operators in expanding their operations into geographies such as the Gulf of Mexico and South East Asia and setting up their operating structures.

He works for a variety of clients on offshore construction matters, asset, project and trade finance in the GCC and internationally. He acts for construction yards, operators and other contractors in relation to offshore exploration and production and offshore services contracts, particularly on financing the acquisition of key assets and negotiating the underlying contracts.

Ian recently acted for the Stanford Marine Group in connection with their syndicated US$300 million dual tranche, convertible/Islamic finance facility to refinance their fleet of offshore support vessels and their acquisition of new assets.

Expérience

• Acting for an Abu Dhabi based bank in connection with a restructuring of a UAE based industrial company with associated companies based in offshore jurisdictions, and restructuring the ownership and contracts such that the Bank's position is improved vis-à-vis other unsecured creditors.
• Advising UAE Bank on the restructuring of an UAE based offshore operator that owned vessels through Panamanian companies and that had various credit facilities from other UAE banks. This included advising on how to enforce, how (and where) to take possession, the associated costs and how best to negotiate with the other lenders. This included the value attributable to charterparties with ARAMCO whether the assets could continue to be employed.
• Acting for Tufton Oceanic and APICORP in connection with the restructuring of their shipping fund that owned assets following expiry of various time charters including the transfer of the ownership of the assets and the restructuring of the debt. 
• Acting for a Sharjah based trade and ship owner in respect of their restructuring and transition of their oil trading business (that included ownership of a fleet of oil tankers) against various syndicates of international banks and credit insurers in restructuring. This included negotiating with different groups of Lenders to enable different assets to be disposed of under specific transactions and a restructure.
• Acting for Eships / Tristar on the acquisition of a vessel under arrest in Asia from a UAE debtor and UAE bank through a private sale, which involved negotiating and settling the claims of various creditors with maritime liens under charterparties and bills of lading and aiming to time bar other non-secured creditors.
• Acting for Polarcus (A Norwegian listed entity) in connection with the restructuring of their financing by DNB.
• Acting for an Jack-up Rig Operator in connection with the restructuring of their global financing facility with a syndicate led by European banks, together with assisting with negotiating contracts with NOCs in the gulf.
• Acting for a UAE and Singaporean Operator in relation to their restructuring with Standard Chartered Bank and their contractual issues with their Nigerian partner and a IOC in Nigeria to restructuring the chartering structure to provide the Bank with security and to ensure that the charterparty with the IOC could continue.