Our People

Expertise

Alan leads the Arthur Cox Corporate/Commercial Group and the Energy Team in Northern Ireland. He has over 15 years’ experience in corporate finance and has advised clients in relation to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, management buy outs and venture capital at leading firms in London and Belfast. In relation to energy matters, Alan’s experience includes advising on all aspects of project development and finance, power generation agreements, renewables, energy trading and dispute resolution. Alan has particular expertise in regulatory, competition, public procurement and EU law matters in the energy sector.

Experience

• Advising AES Kilroot Power Limited since 1994, including all aspects of power generation agreements with Northern Ireland Electricity plc, the impact of the introduction of the Single Electricity Market in Ireland, and on various other matters. He has recently been involved in the negotiation of the documentation required to install additional capacity at Kilroot through construction of OCGT plant.
• Acting for Bahrain-based investment firm Arcapita Bank B.S.C.(c) on its £1.62bn acquisition of Viridian Group plc. The acquisition involved an innovative structure to saving Stamp Duty, involving a scheme of arrangement and a reduction of capital with split court hearings.
• Acting for Viridian Group on the Northern Ireland aspects of its restructuring and debt push down.
• Acting for SONI (the transmission system operator in NI) in the development of the documentation required for the operation of aggregated generating units in the SEM.
• Acting for the funders in the £100m purchase by Northern Ireland Energy Holdings of the natural gas transmission business and assets of Phoenix Natural Gas. The purchase was financed with a bond issue, following NIEH’s mutual business model.
• Acting for THETIS Energy Limited on the development, construction and operation of marine renewable energy projects in Northern Ireland.
• Acting for Barclays Bank plc in relation to the financing of the construction of Tappaghan wind farm.
• Acting for Your Energy Limited in relation to the development and construction of the Garves wind farm project and the Long Mountain wind farm project that were funded by Nord/LB.
• Acting for Nord LB in connection with the financing of the construction of Bin Mountain wind farm.
• Acting for RES on the acquisition of B9 Energy Services Limited’s wind farm interests in Northern Ireland.
• NI Counsel for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi as lead arranger on the extension of the financing of RES Group’s portfolio of wind farms in Europe.
• Negotiating the revisions to be made to the RES Group’s power generation agreements following the introduction of the SEM.
• Acting for Provento Ireland plc on the sale of Crigshane wind farm and Church Hill wind farm to Energia.
• Acting for the Quinn Group in relation to its wind farm and other energy interests in Northern Ireland.
• Acting for Airtricity concerning regulatory matters relating to its portfolio of wind farms in Northern Ireland.

Alan chairs the annual Northern Ireland Energy Forum conference. He has had a number of articles on energy matters published, and presents to national and international energy conferences on numerous issues. The NI Utilities Regulator has invited Alan to participate in the steering group for the “Green New Deal” housing and infrastructure regeneration project.