Amir H. Jahanguiri

Prior to joining Willkie, Amir was a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Paris.

Chambers Europe (2024) and Chambers Global (2024) rank Amir as a leading practitioner in the area of Projects & Energy: International: Finance in France.

Amir’s significant matters include advising:

• Dakar Mobilité and its shareholders Meridiam and FONSIS (Sovereign Fund of Senegal) in financing for the first 100% electric bus system in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Meridiam in connection with its Series C investment in the French EV-battery start-up Verkor
• Advised a syndicate of lenders led by Société Générale on a EUR 220 million senior secured loan facility for the Altitude Group in relation to the acquisition of 18 Covage Fiber to the Office (FTTO) networks and the refinancing of their existing debt
• The consortium formed and led by Meridiam including Strabag and supported by Munich Airport in connection with the successful bid, signing and closing of the concession of the Sofia Airport in the Republic of Bulgaria
• The consortium led by Banque des Territoires, CNP Assurances and EDF Invest on the acquisition of a 50% equity interest in Orange Concessions
• Bouygues Telecom on two strategic fiber network projects representing a €2.5 billion investment. They include Bouygues Telecom’s strategic joint ventures with Cellnex Telecom (for Project Saint-Malo) and Vauban Infrastructure Partners (for Project Astérix) to deploy a national fiber optic network in France to provide mobile and fixed fiber based connectivity and accelerate the roll-out of 5G in the country - Project Astérix Named “Europe Fibre Deal of Year” at the 2020 Project Finance International (PFI) Awards
• The Republic of Djibouti on the creation of the $1.5 billion Djibouti Sovereign Fund (Fonds Souverain de Djibouti)
• Bouygues Telecom on a strategic joint venture with Cellnex Telecom to deploy a national fiber optic network in France to provide mobile and fixed fiber based connectivity and accelerate the roll-out of 5G in the country
• The lenders on the €60 million project financing for the construction of an extension to the Prado Carénage tunnel in Marseille
• The lenders on the €236 million multi-tranche bank and bond financing of the project for the operation of the rail link between Paris-Est Station and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (the CDG Express Project)
• The commercial lenders and institutional investors on the €2.2 billion refinancing of a portion of the Tours-Bordeaux SEA high-speed line concessionaire’s (LISEA) debt – the largest refinancing of an infrastructure project in France
• The Government of the Republic of Djibouti in connection with the 750-kilometer gas pipeline project to export natural gas from the Calub and Hilala fields in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia to the Djiboutian coast
• EIB on its €20 million financing of the biotech company MedinCell
• EIB on its €70 million financing for Groupe Energies Vienne’s Renewable Power Projects
• EIB on the financing of Forsee Power
• Meridiam and Rönesans as the main sponsors of the Bursa Health Campus Project, their fourth health PPP project in Turkey
• The sponsors Rönesans and Sojitz Corporation in the Ikitelli Integrated Healthcare project, the largest healthcare PPP project in Turkey (named PFI’s 2017 PPP Deal of the Year)
• Project sponsor and borrower ELZ Sağlık Yatırım A.Ş. and its shareholders in the Elazıg Integrated Health Campus Project, a public-private partnership (PPP) in Turkey providing for the design, construction, equipment, financing of the health campus, comprising an 888-bed main hospital, 150-bed high-security forensic psychiatric hospital, and 60-unit oral and dental clinic
• Port Autonome de Lomé and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Togo on the award of concession for towage and mooring services within the port of Lomé, the most significant port in Togo, to Boluda Lomé
• The Azzurra consortium (consisting of the Atlantia Group, EDF Invest and Aeoporti di Roma) on the bid for the privatization of Nice’s airport; the consortium will acquire the French state’s 60% interest in the company that controls three airports on the French Riviera
• The consortium formed by the Nord de France Administrative Region’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the territorial Côte d’Opale Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CDC Infrastructure and Meridiam with respect to the 50-year concession agreement for the operation, maintenance and development of the sea-ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer for fifty years, including the design, completion and financing of an extension to the Calais port (“Calais Port 2015” project) representing an investment of more than €900 million
• The lenders in the refinancing of the French A63 toll road (between Gironde and Landes), which involved a €860 million credit facility with a 25-year maturity made available to Concessionaire Atlandes
• Exeltium SA, a project company that supplies electricity in France, in the successful refinancing of its €1.435 billion senior debt
• The sponsors (including Meridiam, Rönesans, Sila Group, and Sam Yapi) and the project company in the second healthcare public-private partnership (PPP) in Turkey, which provides for the design, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of a new 476-bed hospital in Yozgat, Turkey
• Meridiam and Ronesans as the main sponsors of the first healthcare PPP project in Turkey, a €550 million project that will create a major healthcare facility in Adana
• OFI Infravia in the acquisition of a stake in Régaz Bordeaux
• Direction des Fonds d’Epargne on the PPP project for the financing, construction, operation and maintenance of three units of Grenoble University
• Lenders Allianz Global Investors, Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank and Société Générale in the €620 million PPP project for the financing, design, construction and maintenance of the A507 motorway (L2 Bypass) in Marseille
• Project sponsors (Bouygues, Colas, Spie Batignolles, Alstom, Meridiam and FIDEPPP)  in the 25-year PPP project to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Nîmes to Montpellier high speed railway bypass link, providing for a total investment of €1.8 billion (named Project Finance European High-Speed Rail Deal of the Year 2012)
• Lenders SMBC Europe Limited and Dexia Crédit Local on the financing aspects of a €219 million, 30-year public private partnership between the consortium Stade Bordeaux Atlantique and the city of Bordeaux for a 40,000-seat stadium expected to open in 2015 and serve as the new home of the Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club and host of the Euro 2016 football (soccer) matches
• Ecomouv, a consortium lead by Autostrade per l’Italia, the leading European concessionaire for toll motorway construction and management, and its parent company, Atlantia, on the PPP contract, financing and industrial contracts for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Eco-tax project, an automatic taxation system of heavy-trucks on the French motorway’s network generating €2.7 billion in overall revenue for Ecomouv' and representing a €650 million investment.  Project Finance International recognized this work with its 2011 Europe PPP Deal of the Year award
• The European Investment Bank (EIB) on the senior financing (project-risk EIB credit and State guaranteed EIB credit facilities), equity bridge loan financing made available by the EIB, and other financing and inter-creditor matters related to its €1.2 billion contribution to the global project financing for the South Europe Atlantic High Speed Rail Line between Tours and Bordeaux, France.  Project Finance International recognized this work with its 2011 Europe Rail Deal of the Year award
• Banks SMBC Europe Limited, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole CIB and BBVA-Succursale de Paris on the financing aspects of a €245 million, 30-year Public Private Partnership between the city of Nice and the Nice Eco Stadium consortium for a 35,000-seat, environmentally sustainable stadium scheduled to open in 2013
• Exeltium, a consortium of more than twenty companies focusing on industrial activities in France, in connection with a €1.8 billion multi-tranched and multi-sourced limited recourse financing (including a bond issue) for the purpose of purchasing electricity from EDF -- the deal was named PFI’s "Europe Power Deal of the Year" for 2010
• A consortium formed by Vinci Concessions, Vinci Energies, AXA IM, SFR and TDF in connection with the €1 billion financing of the GSM-Rail project (design, construction, deployment of a GSM telecom network dedicated to the French national railway system) -- the deal was named PFI’s "Europe Telecoms Deal of the Year" for 2010
• Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency and the government of Morocco in connection with the award, drafting and negotiation of all contracts for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of all phases of the Tangier Mediterranean seaport in Morocco
• A French bank in connection with the financing of a hospital in Dammam, Saudi Arabia
• Poweo in connection with the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a CCGT power plant in Pont-sur-Sambre, France -- the first ever Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plant and the first ever Independent Power Project to be limited recourse project financed in France
• MTN in connection with obtaining the license for the operation of the second mobile network in Iran and the incorporation of a joint-venture with Iranian partners
• NATIXIS and Société Générale (mandated lead arrangers) in connection with the financing of a greenfield hospital project in Bourgoin-Jallieu (France)
• CALYON, HSBC, Bank of Scotland (the mandated lead arrangers) in connection with the €980 million financing of the Villy-Le-Pelloux to Saint-Julien-en-Genevois section of the French A41 toll-road project
• Financial Security Assurance and CDC IXIS Capital Markets (the senior financiers) in connection with the €460 million index-linked bond financing of the Rouen to Alençon section of the French A28 toll-road project
• Lyonnaise des Eaux de Casablanca (LYDEC), the Moroccan utility, in connection with the limited recourse bond-financing of the restructuring of its concession (water and electricity distribution and water treatment) in Casablanca, Morocco
• Suez in connection with the design, construction, operation, maintenance and financing of the As-Samra water project in Jordan
• Meridiam in its acquisition of a stake in the Gaziantep Integrated Health Campus PPP project in Turkey as well as the borrower and its shareholders in the successful restructuring of equity and senior financing of the project