Norton Rose Fulbright advises Standard Bank and Nedbank on a US$150M loan facility

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, has advised The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (acting through its Isle of Man Branch) and Nedbank Limited (acting through its Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking division) in relation to a US$150M loan facility to the ETC Holdings group to support its recommended cash takeover offer for Shanta Gold Limited.

Shanta Gold Limited, a Guernsey incorporated entity listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the trading symbol SHG, is an East Africa focused gold producer, developer and explorer, with operations in Tanzania and Kenya.

The US$150M loan facility is guaranteed and secured and was provided together with foreign exchange (FX) hedging in relation to USD/GBP exchange rate fluctuations.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by London based Partner, Daniel Metcalfe, supported by a multi-disciplinary London based team including James Dunnett, Jamie Munro, Jens Nessow and Sunny Wong (finance) Paul Whitelock and Adam Worth (corporate) and Matt Hodkin (tax).

Daniel Metcalfe commented:

“We are delighted to have supported Standard Bank and Nedbank on this takeover financing. The transaction underlines the opportunities for growth in the gold market across Africa, and mining opportunities across Tanzania. We continue to see strong African related deal flow across the mining sector, which is one of our key sector strengths.”

With a combined team of over 1,500 lawyers across all practice areas, Norton Rose Fulbright has one of the largest and most prolific energy, infrastructure and natural resources teams of any law firm in the world. The firm’s lawyers have been at the heart of many of the world’s leading energy and infrastructure projects, including innovative and first-to-market transactions across a variety of sectors including LNG, nuclear, mining, power and utilities, and renewables.