Norton Rose Fulbright and Watson Farley & Williams have taken roles on the first stage of a $1.5bn (£962m) deal that has seen French oil and gas group Bourbon sell nine boats to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

The first phase of the sale, worth $144m (£92m), comes after a deal was drawn up by Bourbon and ICBC Financial Leasing earlier this year, which will see 51 vessels sold to the Chinese company by mid-2014. 

Norton Rose Fulbright's Paris office is advising Bourbon with a team led by structured finance and banking partner Christine Ezcutari, working with lawyers from the firm's Singapore base, including asset finance partner Gervais Green. Meanwhile, Watson Farley finance partner Madeline Leong is leading the team advising ICBC.

Ezcutari said: "[The deal] is unique in terms of its size and required extreme diligence and coordination skills from our multi-jurisdictional teams – it is the first time there has been an operation of this scale in the offshore industry. It also reflects how Chinese companies continue to be big players in the market."

The role for Norton Rose Fulbright comes after the firm acted for a syndicate of banks last summer when Bourbon took out a €420m (£353m) loan to support its investment programme.