Pragmatic and enterprise-minded in our method to transactions. Locke Lord has a big and refined Debt Finance Practice that actively serves clients throughout the world from our U.S. London workplaces. We characterize both regulated and non-regulated lenders, corresponding to diversified international monetary institutions, nationwide, regional and local banks, insurance firms, funding funds, asset managers, personal equity-managed debt funds, Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) and Business Development Companies (BDCs). We also commonly represent both public and personal borrowers, resembling non-public equity corporations and their portfolio corporations, in all types of debt transactions, together with leveraged financings to fund M&A transactions and recapitalizations in addition to restructurings. Our debt finance attorneys are pragmatic and business-minded in our strategy to transactions. This strategy, together with our focus on market dynamics, permits us to partner with our shoppers to tailor the perfect solution for a particular transaction. We work intently with our colleagues in different observe areas, equivalent to corporate, M&A, tax and insolvency/restructuring to manage transactions in an environment friendly method and customize methods to fulfill our clients’ business aims. ​This da ta was cre ated with the help  of  GSA ​Content Ge᠎nerator DEMO!

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As the story goes, Beijing pushed Sri Lanka into borrowing money from Chinese banks to pay for the venture, which had no prospect of economic success. Onerous phrases and feeble revenues ultimately pushed Sri Lanka into default, at which level Beijing demanded the port as collateral, forcing the Sri Lankan authorities to surrender control to a Chinese firm. The Trump administration pointed to Hambantota to warn of China’s strategic use of debt: In 2018, former Vice President Mike Pence referred to as it “debt-trap diplomacy”-a phrase he used by way of the final days of the administration-and evidence of China’s military ambitions. As Michael Ondaatje, considered one of Sri Lanka’s greatest chroniclers, once mentioned, “In Sri Lanka a well-told lie is value a thousand details.” And the debt-trap narrative is simply that: a lie, and a powerful one. Our research reveals that Chinese banks are prepared to restructure the terms of existing loans and have never truly seized an asset from any nation, much less the port of Hambantota.

As Saliya Wickramasuriya, the former chairman of the SLPA, informed us, “To get business loans as giant as $300 million throughout the warfare was not easy.” That same year, Sri Lanka also issued its first worldwide bond, with an interest fee of 8.25 %. Both decisions would come back to haunt the government. Finally, in 2009, after a long time of violence, Sri Lanka’s civil war got here to an end. Buoyed by the victory, the federal government embarked on a debt-financed push to build and improve the country’s infrastructure. Annual financial progress charges climbed to six %, however Sri Lanka’s debt burden soared as effectively. In Hambantota, instead of ready for part 1 of the port to generate income because the Ramboll workforce had beneficial, Mahinda Rajapaksa pushed ahead with section 2, remodeling Hambantota into a container port. In 2012, Sri Lanka borrowed one other $757 million from China Eximbank, this time at a decreased, submit-monetary-disaster curiosity fee of two p.c. Rajapaksa took the liberty of naming the port after himself.

By then, the port within the capital metropolis of Colombo, 100 miles away and constantly one of many world’s busiest, had simply expanded and was already pushing capacity. The Colombo port, nevertheless, was smack in the midst of town, whereas Hambantota had a hinterland, that means it offered larger potential for growth and development. To have a look at a map of the Indian Ocean area at the time was to see opportunity and increasing middle classes in all places. Families in India and across Africa have been demanding more shopper goods from China. Countries corresponding to Vietnam were growing quickly and would wish extra pure assets. To justify its existence, the port in Hambantota would have to safe only a fraction of the cargo that went through Singapore, the world’s busiest transshipment port. Armed with the Ramboll report, Sri Lanka’s government approached the United States and India; each international locations stated no. But a Chinese development agency, China Harbor Group, had learned about Colombo’s hopes, and lobbied hard for the challenge.