SVW’s banking and financing team had a very hectic January and February working with new financings from various sources, covering all types of sectors and industries.
The focus, however, shifted dramatically after the lockdown in mid-March. Within a few days, we went from negotiating new financings to assisting clients with establishing urgent liquidity loans and negotiating waivers and amendment to existing financings. We also saw that that previous negotiations reopened in order for new financings to be adapted to the new market conditions. When the situation became a bit more predictable, we additionally saw an increase focus on restructurings.
We have for the last four months also focused on assisting clients with respect to the various Governmental measures to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 situation, including loan and guarantee arrangements, and take proud that partner Peter Aall Simonsen was involved with structuring some of these arrangements. We have additionally seen a considerable interest from both Norwegian and international clients regarding the new temporary act on reconstruction although this arrangement has still not been properly tested.
In parallel with the shifted focus, we have continued working with financings of companies, transactions and projects not being adversely affected by Covid-19. It has been comforting to see that it has been possible to obtain financing also during the lockdown.
We would like to thank all our clients and counterparties for the good cooperation during this extraordinary period and wish everyone a safe and restful summer.
From our side we take comfort with knowing that the decision to close our offices did not affected our ability to assist our clients and that our ability to use alternative communication platforms and other digital tools have been thoroughly tested and improved. Our experiences over the last months represents a giant digital leap for us and will unquestionably effect our work going forwards. We are confident that this will benefit both us and our clients.