Milbank Partner John Dewar and Senior Associate Oliver Irwin Moderate Panels at the TXF Rome 2016: Export, Agency and Project Finance Conference

London Project Finance partner John Dewar chaired a panel entitled “Perspectives on Project and Export Finance in Africa” at the TXF Rome 2016: Export, Agency and Project Finance conference. The panel included Kutoane Kutoane, CEO of ECIC (the South African export credit agency), Luca Lunari, Head of Export Finance Italy at BNP Paribas, Terry Makhubele, Principal: Export Credit Finance at Nedbank, Andrew Patterson, Regional President for Africa at Bechtel, David Ludlow, Head of International Business Development at UKEF (the UK’s export credit agency) and Gert Van Melkebeke, Head of Export Finance Benelux & France at Commerzbank. The panel discussed how commercial banks, ECAs and DFIs can help fund key energy and infrastructure projects across the African continent.

London Project Finance senior associate Oliver Irwin also chaired a panel entitled “Serving the Hard to Reach Corners: How to Project Finance Telecommunications Infrastructure” at the conference. The panel members included Anne Aufrere, Head of Financing and Insurance at Arianespace, Larry Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of Seaborn Networks and Nick Flitterman, Co-Founder and Head of Telecoms at Portland Advisors. The panel debated whether project financing is a viable tool in the telecoms sector and outlined the specific risks for financiers in this sector.

London Project Finance partner Matthew Hagopian and London Transportation & Space partner Nick Swinburne were also in attendance. The three-day conference took place from the 8th – 10th June in Rome, Italy and involved numerous key industry figures from the export and project finance world and was attended by approximately 700 executives from corporations, ECAs, DFIs and other financial institutions.