Robert Franklin
Robert is a project finance lawyer with an extensive track record advising sponsors, lenders, investors and public authorities in relation to the development and implementation of infrastructure and energy projects in a wide range of industry sectors, including renewable energy, social infrastructure, telecommunications, transport and natural resources. He has advised on numerous projects outside the UK, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.
Robert's experience covers a wide range of debt products and capital structures for both greenfield and brownfield assets, as well as other limited or non-recourse financing techniques (acquisition finance, asset finance and reserve based lending) and secured and unsecured corporate lending.
Since 2015 Robert has been an advisory board member of Invest in Africa, a not for profit organisation which promotes SME development in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal through a range of market interventions including web-based platforms and capacity building training.
While we are waiting on the LMA's Working Sub-Group on Transition Issues in Syndicated Loan Markets to produce draft provisions dealing with the transition to SONIA, their US counterpart, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) has already done so for SOFR, the US dollar risk free rate (RFR), in its recent consultation paper "Regarding More Robust LIBOR Fallback Contract Language for New Originations of LIBOR Syndicated Business Loans".
The ARRC's approach is likely to be influential for the LMA in relation to transitional drafting for USD (and potentially for other currencies as well in the interests of consistency). The highlights of the ARRC consultation paper include:
Read More
Topics:
SONIA,
ARRC,
SOFR,
RFR,
LIBOR,
LIBOR replacement rate,
syndicated business loans