Jennifer Bird

As a Legal Director in our Finance & Financial Regulation team in London, I act on project finance, property finance, acquisitions, asset finance and development bank work in the UK and internationally.

After training at Bird & Bird, I qualified into the Finance & Financial Regulation team in 2011. Working in our general Finance & Financial Regulation department has meant that I have been involved in a broad range of transactional matters for a variety of clients, both lender and borrower-side and have consequently built up a diverse pool of technical knowledge and practical experience from which to draw upon.

My experience includes a range of financial structures and fundraising in energy and utilities, including traditional project financing, vendor financing, and finance leasing arrangements. I advise on energy efficiency projects and transactions in renewable energy, including solar, CHP, wind and anaerobic digestion plants. In technology and communications, working closely with clients to understand the scope and practicalities of the underlying secured assets means that I ensure each security package is fully perfected, valid and enforceable.

I act on investment and development real estate finance transactions and have a particular specialism in Shariah-compliant financings with experience of commodity murabaha facilities and ijarah leasing structures.

I advise on domestic and cross-border financing and have assisted with many forms of multi-jurisdictional financing, liaising with my colleagues across Bird & Bird's international network and working alongside major US, Canadian and Indian firms on investments into Europe.

I regularly act as a transaction lead and am responsible for drafting and negotiating documentation, overseeing the drafting and review of conditions precedent, general deal management and wider client interaction. Since joining in 2009, I have also spent time training in our aviation, commercial, employment and real estate teams.

• Multiple funding arrangements for a UK based EIS fund for the construction and operation of anaerobic digestion plants in England and Northern Ireland. My work required drafting loan and sale and leaseback documentation that provided for pari passu shareholder lending and security arrangements.
• Advising a fund manager to the Green Investment Bank on a number of energy saving financings, including the £10m funding for the retrofit of NCP car parks with energy saving LED lightbulbs. The transaction represented one of the first financings to be structured as an energy saving transaction supported by an HM Treasury guarantee.
• Advising on a £43m term and revolving credit facility for an AIM listed communications network provider in connection with the acquisition of a managed hosting and cloud-based services company.
• Advising a specialist fund manager on their EUR 11m loan to a PE owned insight agency in connection with the acquisition of a Bulgarian target company focusing on market research and data analytics.
• Advising on a murabaha facility of £22m for the refinancing of the purchase price and costs associated with the acquisition of properties used as student accommodation in Durham, York and Glasgow, together with a full Shariah-compliant security package.