The Loan Market Association (LMA) has prepared a suite of agreements for use in Africa which forms part of the suite of recommended documentation made available to LMA members on the LMA website. The agreements, prepared by Norton Rose Fulbright in conjunction with a documentation committee consisting of representatives from local and international banks and other local law firms active in each jurisdiction, include:

  1. a suite of unsecured South African facility agreements, namely the Single Currency Multiple Borrower Term and Revolving Facility Agreement, the Single Currency Multiple Borrower Term Facility Agreement, the Single Currency Single Borrower Term and Revolving Facility Agreement and the Single Currency Single Borrower Term Facility Agreement (based on the South African local law documents formerly produced by the African Loan Market Association);
  2. the Nigeria and East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) Single Currency Secured and Unsecured Term Facility Agreement; and
  3. the associated User Guides for each of these agreements.

The African documents are not intended to be implemented as is, but are intended to provide a standardised point of departure for drafting and negotiation in syndicated lending transactions in the Southern African market. The LMA’s African documents may assist borrowers and lenders in implementing transactions more efficiently both from a time and, often more significantly, from a costs perspective.

The launch by the LMA of the African documents on 30 July 2014 at Norton Rose Fulbright’s Johannesburg office provided LMA members with a forum in which to discuss the opportunities and challenges of lending in the region.

Following the launch, a full day training seminar on 31 July 2014, given by partners from both local and international law firms and representatives from major banks active in the region, provided a high level overview of the suite of African documents and some of the key commercial considerations relevant to loan transactions.  Included in the list topics discussed were:  financial covenants, intercreditor agreements, using English law in developing markets, the role of the agent, syndicated loans and security (pre-enforcement) and acceleration, enforcement and insolvency. LMA members can access the full presentations on each topic via the LMA website.