Norton Rose Fulbright has acted for major Chinese steel company Ansteel Group Corporation on a US$1.481 billion refinancing of Karara Mining Limited, utilising a cross-border team of Asia-Pacific corporate, and banking and finance lawyers.

Our lawyers in Melbourne, Perth and Beijing advised Ansteel on a secured refinancing of its majority owned Karara Mining Limited (KML), which was provided by a syndicate of Chinese banks. KML was established in 2007 for the development of the major Karara Iron Ore Project in Western Australia.

The refinancing required a new financing and security package to be put in place in a tight timeframe. It also required extensive negotiation with Gindalbie Metals Limited, the minority owner of KML, which provided a counter-guarantee and indemnity to Ansteel.

Norton Rose Fulbright also advised Ansteel on the counter guarantees required by Gindalbie on two separate unsecured facilities KML put in place with China Guangfa Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for a joint total of US$500 million.

Norton Rose Fulbright partner Jake Howard said it was pleasing to be able to coordinate a cross-border team to negotiate the Australian and Chinese aspects of the transaction.

“This was a big facility that required us to work around the clock between Melbourne, Perth and Beijing in order to achieve financial close within a very short timeframe,” he said.

The lead partners for the deal – Jake Howard (banking and finance) and James Stewart (corporate) – were assisted by partner Liz Allnutt in Perth, a team of lawyers in Melbourne and Perth, and associate Xinti Liu in Beijing.