A&O, White & Case and Linklaters head global project rankings; Links takes the lead on renewables

Allen & Overy (A&O) has topped the global project finance league tables for 2009 by value and volume according to new research that shows last year's leader, Clifford Chance (CC), falling into fifth place.

Infrastructure Journal's (IJ) 2009 global rankings of legal advisers on project finance transactions shows A&O advised on deals worth $23.9bn (£14.8bn). That tally, which included a role advising the 12 banks supporting the £1.5bn financing for Global Infrastructure Partners' successful bid for Gatwick Airport in October 2009, gave A&O a 6.2% share of a much-depleted market.

White & Case came second with roles on 23 deals worth $20.3bn (£12.5bn), and Linklaters came in third with roles on 29 deals worth $15.2bn (£9.4bn). Latham & Watkins was in fourth place after advising on 28 deals worth $14.7bn (£9.1bn), and CC advised on 28 deals worth $14.4bn (£8.9bn) to take fifth place. To top the 2008 rankings by value, CC advised on 47 deals worth $64.5bn (£40bn).

Anne Baldock (pictured), A&O's global head of private finance initiatives (PFI) and public private partnership (PPP), said: "It was an odd year. The market was a bit stop and start while people paused for thought on how to deal with the smaller debt market. Different sectors and geographic locations dealt differently with the issue."

The IJ research found that deal flow across the sector hit its lowest point since 2005 last year. Global deal values were down by 29% from 2008 at $176bn (£108bn), while the volume of deals fell by almost as much – dropping from 677 globally in 2008 to 496.

Bruce White, global head of projects at Linklaters, commented: "Last year was clearly a difficult market. In particular, the banks had real liquidity constraints so the number of closed deals was down by around a third compared to 2008. We have seen the terms of project financings tightened and a more significant role played by the export credit agencies and multi-lateral lenders on doing international business."

Meanwhile, the renewables sector is proving increasingly important to firms. Linklaters headed the sector rankings with roles on 16 deals worth $4.9bn (£3bn).

Despite the drop in overall activity, there are signs that the worst may be over, with the number of transactions remaining roughly equal in both halves of 2009.

Simon Dickens, a London-based projects partner with Latham, told Legal Week: "The re-emergence of capital markets as a source for project finance debt last year really demonstrated that the markets are ready to take on project risk again. Being able to tap them takes some of the pressure off the commercial bank market, as it had become very challenging in the current economic climate to get banks to take long-term risks on their own books."

Philip Stopford, White & Case head of Western Europe, Middle East and Africa project and infrastructure finance added: "I think 2010 is going to be an interesting year because commodity prices are coming back and oil prices are at a level where deals have become viable. But the single biggest issue is the continued question of liquidity and how much there is out there."