Coudert Brothers and Morrison & Foerster have negotiated a US$300m term loan for container leasing company Florens from 13 lenders. Hong Kong's COSCO Pacific Limited, the parent company of Florens, has guaranteed the loan.

Coudert acted for COSCO, with Morrison & Foerster acting for the lenders and arrangers including Rabobank International, ABN Amro Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Citicorp and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
Hong Kong Coudert partner Christopher Stephens led the deal along with partner Nana Chan.

Michelle Hung, the in-house counsel at COSCO, said they worked with Coudert because of the proficiency of Stephens.

"We negotiated a financing deal for Florens in 1998, and Chris led the Coudert team advising the lenders," she told ALB. "I was impressed by his proficiency and he differentiated himself from other lawyers. We have used Coudert ever since and involved them in M&A and financing deals."

The Morrison & Foerster team was lead by Hong Kong partners Robert Woll and Ven Tan.