Shearman & Sterling has advised Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital SAE on the signing of a joint venture with QInvest and other Qatari investors to import liquefied natural gas into Egypt from mid-2013.
The joint venture will be 51% held by Qatari investors and investment bank Qinvest with the remaining 49% held by Citadel Capital (a leading private equity firm in the Middle East and Africa with US$ 9.5 billion in investments under control).
Under the project development and shareholders’ agreement signed on 22 November, the joint venture will build and own the facilities needed to position a floating LNG storage and regasification unit (FSRU). The joint venture will import LNG, regasify it at the FSRU, then transmit it through the Egyptian national natural gas grid to high-volume end-users in the north African country.
The Shearman & Sterling team of lawyers in the firm’s London office included project finance partner Tim Pick and associates Dan Feldman and Julien Bocobza.
This joint venture marks the second significant Egyptian energy deal Shearman & Sterling has worked on with Citadel Capital in 2012. Shearman & Sterling also advised the private equity firm on the financing for the US$3.7 billion Mostorod oil refinery project – the largest project financing in Africa.
