Katia Mengel
Director
Katia Mengel is a banking and finance lawyer based in Johannesburg.
Katia specialises in local and cross border finance work, with considerable experience and expertise in project finance and acquisition finance related work in the energy and mining spheres. She is also experienced in bilateral and syndicated lending transactions and preference share funding.
Katia is a member of the African Loan Market Association (ALMA) and has been involved in the association since its inception. She continues to be involved in the drafting of the South African law equivalent to the English law primary and secondary loan documents. Katia is a member of the International Project Finance Association and is the current chairlady of Women in Red South Africa, the NRSA professional women’s forum.
Katia joined us in 2009, prior to which she spent almost two years working in the banking and finance team of a large law firm in London where she focused on general banking, syndicated lending and trade finance transactions, particularly within the emerging markets. She graduated with the BA LLB degrees from the University of Cape Town in 2002 and was admitted as an attorney in March 2006. Katia speaks English and French fluently.
Selected client work
- Acting as advisers to the sponsors in relation to a joint venture between a large Spanish renewable solar energy developer and The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa in the preparation of a bid under the renewable energy program (which was selected as a Preferred Bidder) and the financing of the development, construction and operation of a concentrated solar power energy generating facility, utilizing parabolic trough technology, in the Northern Cape with a generating capacity of 100MW, which was selected as a Preferred Bidder.
- Acting as advisers to the sponsors in relation to a joint venture between a large Spanish renewable solar energy developer and The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa in the preparation of a bid under the renewable energy program (which was selected as a Preferred Bidder) and the financing of the development, construction and operation of a concentrated solar power energy generating facility, utilizing steam tower technology, in the Northern Cape with an energy generating capacity of 50MW.
- Acting as advisers to Nedbank Capital (a division of Nedbank Limited) and The Standard Bank of South Africa in relation to the financing of the development, construction and operation of a 140MW wind energy generating facility in the Eastern Cape.
- Acting as advisers to Nedbank Capital (a division of Nedbank Limited) and The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa in relation to the financing of the development, construction and operation of two 10MW photovoltaic solar power generating facilities in the Northern Cape.
- Acting as advisers to Absa Capital (a division of Absa Bank Limited) and The Standard Bank of South Africa in relation to the financing of a 30MW photovoltaic solar power generating facility in Kimberley.
- Acting as advisers to Nedbank Capital (a division of Nedbank Limited) and The Standard Bank of South Africa in relation to the financing of the development, construction and operation of a 142.8MW wind energy generating facility in the Eastern Cape.
- Acting as advisers to a major South African locomotives manufacturer in an ECA backed USD40 million term loan facility in respect of the financing and construction of locomotives in Sierra Leone.
- Acting as advisers to Standard Chartered Bank, the Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Credit Suisse and Caterpillar Financial SARL in relation to a term loan facility to Discovery Copper Botswana (Proprietary) Limited for the Boseto Copper Project in Botswana.
- Acting as advisers to Standard Chartered Bank in relation to a limited recourse project finance facility to Boteti Mining (Proprietary) Limited for the AK06 Boteti Diamond Mine Project located in Botswana.
- Acting as South African counsel for a major oil company in its entry into a USD130 million syndicated multi-currency credit facility with a major international bank.
- Acting as advisers to FirstRand Bank Limited (acting through its Rand Merchant Bank division) in relation to a secured R500 million acquisition finance facility provided to Pangbourne Properties Limited.
- Acting as advisers to a major bank in the R35 million preference share restructuring funding provided to a commodity finance house.
- Acting as advisers to a major bank in the R150 million preference share funding in relation to a mining acquisition