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Jean-François
Adelle
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Jean-François Adelle specializes in financial law, dealing in transactional and regulatory advice as well as litigation on behalf of financial institutions, investment funds and corporate groups. He heads the Finance Banking Group and the Firm’s Legal Opinions’ Committee.
He has significant experience in debt financing transactions (club deals, bilateral and syndicated loans) in relation to acquisitions, secured lending, international trade, cash flows management, hedging contracts and asset-based finance. He has developed expertise in trust (fiducie), collateral, derivatives, issue and marketing of financial instruments. He assists his clients before State courts or arbitral tribunals in disputes relating to financial and investment transactions. His activity is largely international and includes the North and West African continent.
Author of many publications and frequent speaker in conferences on finance and banking topics, he has led Paris Europlace market committees that inspired legislative reforms on fiducie and collaterals and the ad hoc regime of security agent. He has co-chaired the Work Stream International Financing ICC Task Force on Financial institutions and international Arbitration (2016).
Significant experience
- Assisted Chinese bank in connection with the protection of their rights and sale of their interests in multi-currency RCF facility to Casino Guichard Perrachon, in the context of Rallye SA and Foncière Euris’ safeguards
- Assisted Filmexport on motion picture cash security by way of fiducie in security for bonds issue
- Assisted Innergex Inc, / wind energy producer in relation with the refinancing by Saar LB and BPI France of project loans granted by Commerzbank and Nord LB in connection with wind farms in France
- Assisted Enbridge Inc. in connection with the financing of offshore wind farms in Saint Nazaire by an international syndicate of banks including parent equity support
- Assisted SunTrust in connection with REVOLVING CREDIT AND TERM LOAN AGREEMENT financing
- Assisted ABN AMRO Bank NV in connection with asset based and netting lending arrangement to Planon France SAS
- Assisted Ceetrus SA in connection with project company subsidiary mezzanine financing and related hedging arrangements for property developments in Italy
- Assisted Swedbank AB (PUBL) in relation with the re financing of French subsidiaries of Brenderup Holding AB
- Assisted Raiffeisen Bank in the refinancing of corporate loan to Orpea and its Czech subsidiary Senecura
- Assisted Europe Equity VI in connection with multicurrency uncommitted revolving bridge facility agreement
- Assisted Coface Finanz in connection with cross breeder receivables finance documentation
- Assisted BCI Mer Rouge in connection with the refinancing of corporate loans in East Africa
- Assisted Bank of America in the refinancing of the acquisition of Brandsintown by HLD Europe
- Assisted Credimundi in the refinancing of secured export loan receivables
- Assisted Assicurazioni Generali in its indirect cash pooling arrangement
- Assisted several investment firms from the United Kingdom in connection with validity and enforceability opinions of collateral management documentations
- Assisted for Eurofins Scientific in connection with several listed bond issues
- Assisted Caisse des Dépôts in the putting in place of a Fiducie
- Assisted Deerfield Management Company, L.P. in connection with the acquisition financing of Flamel Technologies
- Management trust for Caisse des Dépôts
- Assisted Clarins in the financing of the acquisition of all its listed shares and its delisting,
- Assisted Africa Merchant Bank in several financings of Sub-Saharan Africa Telecommunication Operators
- Assisted the Libyan Investment Authority in an investment litigation
- Assisted an international consortium of submarine cable operators in an action for indemnification of frozen deposit in the bankruptcy of the Bulgarian bank SVB
- Assisted SNCF and SOCRIF in a litigation against Crédit Immobilier de France related to the banking group governance structure
Member of
- Vice Chair of the IBA Banking Committee (2020)
- International Bar Association (IBA) – Officer and treasurer of the Banking law committee
- International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
- Paris Europlace, Financial law committee (chair of the fiducie and security law committee – 2003 – 2011)
- Association européenne de droit bancaire et financier (AEDBF)
Training
- Specialized Graduate Studies Diploma of Counsel and Corporate Lawyer (DESS), University of Lorraine
- Graduate Study Diploma (DEA) in in Community Law, University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas
- Institute of comparative law, University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas
- Sciences Po – Paris (economic and social policy section) (alumni)
- LL.M, Penn
publications
- Asset-backed credit: a relevant financing tool for companies weakened by the covid crisis19 – La lettre du trésorier, September 2020
- Support for asset-based financing as a relay for EMPs: exceptional government measure in favor of factoring – Option Droit & Affaires, update 28/09/2020
- Derivatives 2020 – International comparative legal guide French Chapter
- Decoding: “Brexit, the new Withdrawal Agreement”
- Best practices, legal certainty and dispute resolution under French law
archives
- Réforme des sûretés et financements sur actifs, Paris, avril 2019
- Arbitrating Banking and Finance Related Disputes: A New Paradigm? Project Finance Transactions, Cairo – 10 February 2019 CRCICA
- Motion Picture Finance, IBA, Rome, 10 October 2018
- Trends and perspectives of international arbitration in disputes involving financial institutions, (avec A. Fessas ICC Secretary general, Mohamed Abel Wahab (FCIarb), Jeffrey Goldman (chairman, PRIME Finance)), IBA, Rome, October 2018
- L’arbitrage dans les financements bancaires, FBF CCI France, avec Charles Nairac (White & Case), 29 mai 2018
- Need to know about insolvency? IBA IFLC, Amsterdam, mai 2018
- 5th Banking and Finance Law Seminar, the 2016 reform of the law of obligations in the French civil code: Impact on banking and finance transactions, Malta, mars 2018
- Sapin II : le nouveau marché de la dette, DII, Paris, Octobre 2017
- Insolvency in Step in rights in project finance, IBA, Washington DC, September 2017
- Funding Africa’s growth, IBA, Paris, 2016
- Sanctions libyennes : Impact sur la conclusion et l’exécution des contrats de crédit et de garantie, CIAN, Paris, 2015
- Finance islamique, Applications et perspectives au Maroc, 5e convention des Juristes de la Méditerranée, Rabat, Octobre 2013
- Interbanks relations, a house divided, IBA, Washington, 2013
- Paris Europlace Caisse des dépôts, la Fiducie en action, Gestion de crédits, Paris, 2012
- Financements internationaux : reconnaissance en droit français du trust et de la parallel debt, avec Emmanuelle Naulais, Option Finance, 10 octobre 2011
- Technical Guides EACT: Regulatory framework, legal and tax constraints for centralized cash management. Rédaction du chapitre France, European Association of Corporate Treasurers, Numéro spécial EACT, March 2009
- L’évolution récente du droit chinois : ouverture ou protectionnisme ? avec Emmanuel Meril, La Revue Internationale et Stratégique, n°81, printemps 2011
- L’agent des sûretés en droit français : pour une clarification des régimes de l’article 2328-1 du Code civil et de la fiducie de sûretés, Revue de droit bancaire et financier n°5 de Septembre-Octobre 2010, (aussi publié in : Trusts e attività fiduciarie N° 3/2011)
- Enforcement of different security agent structures: parallel debt, trusts and alternative solutions, 29th International Financial Law Conference, Istanbul, October 2010
- International Guide to Hedge Fund Regulation’, Chapitre France, Mason and Cornish, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2009
- Bank confidentiality, IBA, Singapore, 2007
- La fiducie-sûreté, facteur de compétitivité du droit du financement français, Etudes à la mémoire de Fernand-Charles Jeantet, Coll. Mélanges, LexisNexis – LITEC (2010)
News
- JEANTET ADVISED BANCO SANTANDER, S.A.
- Jeantet assists Canadian leading energy company Enbridge in the development and financing of a 500mw offshore windfarm off Fécamp
- French State guarantee scheme to secure loans: clarifications and first feedback
- Covid19 Crisis – Towards eased distant execution of documents in financing transactions under French law
- Extension of contractual deadlines expiring during the state of health emergency