Helen Davies
Senior Associate
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP
Biography
Helen Davies is a shipping finance lawyer based in London.
Helen has extensive experience in the export credit sector with particular focus on the cruise industry. She advises on a range of international transactions and has represented owners, operators, banks, lessors and other financial institutions in connection with a range of debt and asset finance lending and leasing transactions.
Helen read law and French at the University of Sheffield and joined us as a trainee in 2005 and, after working in the shipping finance teams in both London and Greece, qualified as a solicitor into the shipping finance department in January 2007.
Professional experience
Collapse all- Solicitor, qualified in England & Wales
• Acting for Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc on the Italian export credit financing and delivery of several cruise ships.
• Acting for Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc on the German export credit financing and delivery of several cruise ships.
• Acting for Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc on the financing and delivery of three cruise ships, supported by SACE S.P.A. in their capacity as "quasi-lender" of the facilities, structured by way of promissory notes.
• Acting for Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc on the financing and delivery of two cruise ships supported by SIMEST S.P.A. with involvement of HSBC Bank Plc and SACE S.P.A., again in a promissory note format.
• Acting for BP Shipping Limited on the charter of four vessels following sale and purchase and financing arrangements all put in place simultaneously.
• Acting for the Italian export credit agency, SACE S.P.A., in relation to the financing of two vessels and the relevant export credit elements of the building contracts, facility and delivery.
• German export credit financings - acting for KfW in respect of major cruise ship financings for various operators, including RCCL, NCL and Genting.
• Acting for P&O Ferries on the Finnish export credit backed financing and delivery of two ferries.
• Acting for Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc in respect of various loans of varying structures including syndicated and bi-lateral facilities with both fixed and floating interest rates and a variety of repayment and option structures.
• Acting for Carnival plc on the high profile sale of a cruise ship and associated intellectual property and trademark issues.
• Major loan restructuring - acting for the lenders in connection with a US$1.3bn loan restructuring involving the new loan and related lease financing of nine container vessels to be bareboat and time chartered to Hanjin Shipping.
• Acting for Barclays Bank plc in connection with loan facilities provided to BVI companies for the construction and subsequent acquisition of yachts.
• Acting for Barclays Bank plc on a New Zealand Export Credit backed yacht conversion project.
• Acting for Deutsche Bank AG in relation to a secured financing of two ships which had been held at the yard ready for delivery for several months, necessitating, amongst other things, a seller's credit structure with second and third ranking security.