Keith Loke is complex banking and finance Partner at HWL Ebsworth. He leads the firm’s national energy, resources, transport and infrastructure finance practices.
Keith specialises in structured financing, with deep expertise in bespoke public, project, real estate, corporate, trade, asset and acquisition finance, and debt restructuring. He acts for governments, global banks, private credit and other investment funds, and domestic and multinational corporations on novel and the most intricate cross-border multi-tiered multi-sourced financings and workouts. He is adept at guiding clients through complicated multipartite, intercreditor, security, government co-funding and other commercial arrangements.
Keith also advises governments and financial institutions on highly sensitive multidisciplinary strategic legal matters. He sits on the Australian project finance committee of the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association.
Expertise
Experience
- MyState BankAdvising on the financing, regulatory capital, securitisation, hedging and capital integration aspects of its A$12.5 billion merger with Auswide Bank.
- WICETAdvising on the syndicated project financing, development and restructuring of the A$4.3 billion Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal in Gladstone, Queensland.
- General Electric and WRCAdvising on the syndicated project financing, development and restructuring of the A$1.2 billion Worsley Multi-Fuel Cogen Power Station in Worsley, Western Australia.
- Masdar, John Laing, Hitachi Zosen Inova and Tribe InfrastructureAdvising on the syndicated project financing of the A$511 million Waste-to-Energy Resource Recovery Facility in East Rockingham, Western Australia.
- International banksAdvising on the syndicated project financings of the Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine in Erongo, Namibia and the Kayelekera Uranium Mine near Karonga, Malawi.
- New South Wales Government, Queensland Government and Tasmanian GovernmentAdvising on the financing, securities and complex multipartite aspects of various large-scale long-term structured essential services arrangements involving the acquisition and supply of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
- New South Wales Government and Australian Capital Territory GovernmentAdvising on their procurement of whole-of-government transactional banking and payment services.
- JPMorganAdvising on its financing of Sankaty’s A$1.9 billion acquisition of General Electric’s Australian commercial lending businesses.
- International banksAdvising on the financing aspects of a private equity bid to acquire Lattice, the A$1.6 billion oil and gas business of Origin Energy.
- International bankAdvising on its New York capital call facility to a US$1.5 billion investment fund affiliated with a globally significant sovereign pension fund.
- TrafiguraAdvising on its structured cross-border US$520 million trade finance facility from a global bank.
- TrafiguraAdvising on the novel and complex structured secured prepayment financing of its acquisition of Australian carbon credit units from a leading Australian multi-sector developer.