Katia Mengel

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Firm/Organization: Fox Rothschild LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright
Blogs: Financial Institutions Legal Snapshot, Financial services: Regulation tomorrow, South Florida Trial Practice

Latest Articles

The governing documents that address the Southern African Power Pool’s (SAPP) role in cross-border transactions provide a framework that bidders, under the coal baseload independent power producer procurement programme (CBIPPP), that addresses some of the Department of Energy’s (DoE) requirements for cross-border projects in Southern Africa under the CBIPPP. There are two key requirements that bidders of cross-border projects under the CBIPPP will need to satisfy, before the signing of the implementation agreement. These are…
The Paris Agreement signed on 12 December 2015 is being widely proclaimed as a historic deal that will lead to decarbonisation. The agreement signals a shift to a low carbon, better future. The agreement will affect numerous sectors including energy, transport, mining, agribusiness, infrastructure and finance. Our COP21 team has produced a summary of the key points of the agreement, including: The main pillars of the agreement; The role of carbon markets; How the…
The Coal Baseload Independent Power Procurement Programme Request for Qualification and Proposals (RFP) was released by the Department of Energy (DoE) in December 2014. The RFP allows preferred bidders, with the approval of the DoE, to undertake any refinancing or re-arrangement of the debt or equity at any time during the term of the Implementation Agreement (which is a period of 30 years). DoE to share in the gains As a condition of its approval…
Africa’s diversity is reflected in its legal systems. The following legal curiosities give a taste of what makes the continent such an interesting, and sometimes challenging, place to transact. Did you know? A Nigerian guarantor cannot make payment under a guarantee denominated in South African Rand without a Certificate of Capital Importation. This is issued by a bank in Nigeria when funds are imported into Nigeria. It is therefore not common for Nigerian entities to…
In the Request for Qualifications and Proposals (RFP) issued in relation to the Coal Baseload IPP Procurement Programme, the Department of Energy (DoE) recognises that, at any bid submission date, bidders may not have all of the necessary appointments, consents or documents required to undertake their projects immediately upon being appointed as preferred bidders. To ensure that bidders who are appointed as preferred bidders are fully committed to developing their projects within the timeframes provided…
The Request for Qualifications and Proposals (RFP) released by the Department of Energy (DoE) in respect of the Coal Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (CIPPPP) introduces a new Part D which relates to affected projects. The RFP allows a bidder to inform the DoE of any project in which it is involved which is experiencing or will experience difficulties in either connecting to the relevant transmission or distribution system or in obtaining water use rights…
After the success of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP Programme) run by the Department of Energy of South Africa (DoE), the release by the DoE of the requests for proposals for gas, coal and hydro under the government’s baseload procurement programme is hotly anticipated. We highlight below some of the differences that we expect to see in the Coal Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (CIPPP Programme) versus the REIPPP Programme. Single…
When rating agencies downgrade the credit ratings of South Africa’s banks or the country’s sovereign credit rating, whether justifiably or not, it raises interesting questions for the operation of project financing agreements. Definitions in finance documents designate a class of financial institutions as ‘acceptable banks’. This definition is commonly used in project finance transactions as a benchmark to limit the financial institutions that a lender may syndicate to or sell down to and to limit…
The DoE recently made sweeping amendments to the RFP under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) to make the bid submission process cheaper and less onerous for developers. Will the DoE make the same changes to the RFP under the Small Project Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (SPIPPPP)? The intention is to give Small and Medium Enterprises and smaller, emerging developers of renewable energy projects an opportunity to participate in renewable energy…
The Loan Market Association (LMA) has prepared a suite of agreements for use in Africa which forms part of the suite of recommended documentation made available to LMA members on the LMA website. The agreements, prepared by Norton Rose Fulbright in conjunction with a documentation committee consisting of representatives from local and international banks and other local law firms active in each jurisdiction, include: a suite of unsecured South African facility agreements, namely the…