Sullivan & Worcester

Sullivan’s award-winning London office is multi-disciplinary, advising clients in relation to trade and trade finance, commodity and export finance, banking and securitisation, securities, acquisition, project and real estate development finance, insurance, tax, compliance and regulatory issues, as well as all aspects of dispute resolution.

The team advises banks, financial institutions and funds in all aspects of their business. The firm also counts the key industry bodies in trade finance as its clients, including BAFT (the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade), ITFA (the International Trade and Forfaiting Association) and the ICC (the International Chamber of Commerce).

With London being the international centre for trade, export and commodities finance, a large proportion of the firm’s trade and export finance work is handled there. However, the London team advises clients in relation to their activities throughout the world, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets including in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the CIS and Latin America.

In addition to trade, export and commodities finance and related activity, the London office is an integral part of the international and cross-border finance practice offering sophisticated and highly customised solutions in cross-border debt and equity financing transactions. The team in London also works hand in hand with other key parts of the firm’s US practice, advising on transactions involving English law and New York law and supporting the needs of clients worldwide.

Sullivan has been named: ‘Best Export Finance Law Firm’ by GTR’s Leaders in Trade Awards 2023, ‘Best trade or supply chain finance law firm’ in 2022, recognised for ‘Legal Innovation in Trade’ by Trade Finance Global (TFG) in 2023 and named ‘Best Trade Finance Law Firm’ at TFG’s 2022 Awards. Geoffrey Wynne was presented with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the RFIx Awards in 2024.

The team’s core experience in London includes:

• Commodity financing: pre-export financings, prepayment transactions, borrowing base, reserve base lending, inventory financings and commodity repos.
• Receivables financing: multi-jurisdictional supply chain finance programs, invoice discounting, factoring and forfaiting transactions.
• Structured financing: asset acquisitions, securitisations, hedges, credit derivatives and synthetic securitisations.
• Trade services: the use of trade finance instruments and the application of uniform rules of practice.
• Export credit agency (ECA) finance: short, medium and long-term ECA and multi-source finance.
• Corporate lending and acquisition finance: investment grade and sub-investment grade syndicated and bilateral credit facilities, acquisition facilities, bridge to bond financings and unitranche and senior/second lien leveraged financings.
• Digitalisation of trade finance, fintech and electronic banking: legal issues relation to fintech, blockchain, electronic banking, digitalisation of trade finance and electronic payment undertakings (ePUs).
• Insurance: advising on all aspects of commercial insurance arrangements, including those which support trade finance, from policy wording negotiations to contested claims.
• Project finance: including infrastructure and energy projects.
• Restructuring and special situations: advising on non-performing credit facilities and workouts and on ‘special situations’ financings, including rescue financings, litigation financings and the provision of super-senior credit to companies in distress.
• Islamic finance: including ijara, wakala, murabaha and istisna’a financing structures.
• Compliance and regulation: advising on regulatory (Basel III), bribery and corruption issues, sanctions, anti-money laundering and counter terrorism issues, particularly in connection with trade and export finance.

The firm is a member of the following industry bodies:

• BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade)
• ITFA (International Trade and Forfaiting Association)
• The ICC (International Chamber of Commerce)
• The LMA (Loan Market Association)

For more information, please visit: www.sullivanlaw.com