Seyi Bella

Seyi provides advice on a broad range of transactions including project finance, corporate finance and M&A. Her focus is on banking and secured lending and she advises local and international financial institutions, corporate clients and government agencies on multi-currency, local and cross border financing transactions.  Seyi also has a broad range of Fintech clients and advises them across setting up, regulatory compliance issues, business structuring and M&A.

Our diversity policy demonstrates our un-biased commitment to gender equality. The Firm is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to recognising, recruiting, rewarding and retaining the most talented people regardless of race, gender, disability, or social class. Of the eighty (80) lawyers at the Firm, forty-five (45) are female, and of the twelve (12) Partners at the Firm, six (6) are women. Notwithstanding the admission of three new partners (one female and two males) effective May 1, 2021, the leadership structure of the firm still assures that the female gender is ably represented. In this regard, the Chief Operating Officer of the Firm and the Head of Human Resources are females.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic which led employees at many firms to begin to work from home, the Firm was already an industry pioneer in encouraging flexible working hours and adopting a work from home policy for nursing mothers. The foregoing, we believe, is an accurate reflection of the Firm’s unparalleled commitment to ensuring that women receive the requisite support to build rewarding and exceptional legal careers at the Firm.

The Firm celebrates the International Women’s Day with activities geared at promoting and show casing the female talents in the firm. In addition, there is a B&I Ladies Club, comprising female mentors from Partnership and senior associate levels that mentor, coach and provide support to female employees within the firm.

The Firm provides equal access to opportunities, resources and information to all employees regardless of gender whilst promotion within the Firm is strictly based on merit and performance.

To ensure a more inclusive environment for our women, we ensure the following:

• Continuous monitoring and evaluation of gender equality in the workplace.
• Promote policies on equal treatment.
• No discrimination in conditions of employment, work distribution and benefits.
• Transparent recruitment practices
• Inclusion in key leadership positions in the Firm.
• Supporting women with family-friendly workplace practices such as reduction in work hours after maternity leave, flexible work arrangements, etc.
• A women-focused employee group to empower our women to reach the highest rank of their career.

• Led the team that acted as Nigerian counsel to a syndicate of lenders (through their Agent – African Export-Import Bank) in connection with a EUR1,000,000,000 (One Billion Euros) with an accordion of an additional up to EUR1,000,000,000 (One Billion Euros) syndicated loan facility advanced to the Bank of Industry Limited. The term facility was unsecured and for a term of three (3) years - coordinated by Standard Chartered Bank and Africa Finance Corporation.
  
  
• Led the team that advised The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited, as Nigerian legal counsel, in connection with an up to Seventy Million Euros (€70,000,000) facility, split into a Euro export credit facility and a Naira commercial term facility, granted to Supertech Chemical Industry Limited for the construction of a 100,000- ton methanol and 160,000-ton ammonium bicarbonate chemical processing plant situated in Ondo State, Nigeria.
  
  
• Led the team that advised the Mandated Lead Arrangers (acting on behalf of a syndicate of senior and junior lenders), in connection with (a) a US$360,000,000 senior bridge facility; and (b) a US$90,000,000 junior bridge facility made available to Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited (the “Borrower”) in relation to the acquisition by the Borrower’s subsidiary, Project Odinmin Investments Limited, of 100% of the shares held by Equinor AS in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited - the holder of an undivided 53.85% interest of the contractor rights in Nigerian oil mining leases 128 and 129.
  
  
• Currently leads the team that advises the Dangote Group in connection with the financing of the construction and operation of the state-of-the-art greenfield crude oil refinery in the Dangote Industries Free Zone, Nigeria. With a capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil and 750,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene per day, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery represents a major milestone in the African energy sector.
  
  
• Co-led a US$1.1 Billion (One Billion, One Hundred Million United States Dollars) transaction and represented a syndicate of international banks (including Standard Chartered Bank UK) in connection with a senior term loan facility advanced to Heirs Holdings Oil & Gas and TNOG Pipelines Limited for the purposes of financing the acquisition of a forty-five percent (45%) participating interest in Nigerian oil license OML 17 (and other oil and gas infrastructure) from Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited, Total E&P Nigeria Limited, and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company.
  
  
• Co-led the team that advised the Appzone Group as Seller’s Counsel in connection with the US$8.5 million series seed capital raise led by California-based ‘Flourish Ventures LLC’ and London-based ‘TLCom and involving several other investors, into its subsidiary, Zone Mauritius Limited, a leading payments network infrastructure provider and switch processor. The capital raise was followed by the group’s complex internal restructuring across Nigeria and Mauritius.

• M&A
• Private equity
• Asset/Project finance
• Real estate finance
• Restructuring and insolvency  

• Banking
• Oil and gas
• Real estate
• Social infrastructure
• Tech and telecoms

• Nigerian Bar
• New York Bar
• American Bar

• Nigerian Bar Association
• New York Bar Association

• LLB, University of Lagos 
• LLM, Harvard Law School