Dr. Clemens Hillmer, LL.M. (UCT)

Full Profile

Clemens advises on all transactional aspects of the maritime industry, including asset and other structured finance as well as leasing transactions, restructuring, insolvencies and work-outs and loan portfolio transfers. He is assisting with the acquisition and sale of ships (second hand and newbuilding) as well as employment and management agreements. Further, he is advising on regulatory issues in connection with sustainable shipping (e.g. EU ETS, Fuel EU, ship recycling).

Clemens is recommended as a leading finance lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500, JUVE Handbook and Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal).

He is ranked a Band 2 Leading Individual for Shipping Finance in Chambers Europe 2024, with clients praising his "main strengths are his speed and ability to offer practical solutions, as well as efficient communication", and describing him as "a well-reputed expert in the financing of portfolio acquisitions and in refinancing loans".

He has also been recognised for Asset Finance Law as well as Banking and Finance Law by Best Lawyers/Handelsblatt.

Experience

• Advising ABN AMRO and Credit Agricole on a USD 200m ECA-covered credit facility provided to SAL for the purpose of financing the fleet of new buildings “Orca” heavylifters.
• Advising a major German bank on a loan facility to a Cypriot owner for the purpose of financing a fleet of 12 vessels and providing a hunting line for the financing of up to six vessels.
• Advising Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG as lead counsel on a USD 135m Fund Level Facility for the purpose of re-financing sale-and-lease-back ship transactions concluded by a credit fund managed by Meerbaum Capital Solutions. This deal won "The Structured Finance Deal of the Year 2020", Marine Money.
• Advising Hoegh LNG Ltd on the ten-year USD 685m refinancing of the Hoegh Esperanza and Hoegh Gannet floating storage and regasification units that are servicing Germany's floating liquefied natural gas terminals in the North Sea ports of Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony and Brunsbuttel, Schleswig-Holstein. The FSRUs are two of five vessels contracted by the German government to help achieve its goal of energy independence from Russia. This deal won Marine Money's "Structured Finance Deal of the Year 2023".
• Advising HSH Nordbank on the development and implementation of a new loan restructuring structure in which loans are tranched into different tranches with a total volume of more than USD 1bn (Nautilus structure). One of HSH Nordbank's business partners that supported HSH Nordbank in the restructuring was the Navios Group. This deal won Marine Money’s “Restructuring Deal of the Year”.
• Advising Hamburg Commercial Bank on a USD 180m bank facility provided to an intermediate holding company of MPC Container Ships ASA.
• Advising HSH Portfoliomanagement AöR on the sale of a shipping loan portfolio of more than USD 1bn secured by 56 ship mortgages. This deal won “Restructuring Deal of the Year 2022”, Marine Money.
• Advising various private equity funds (e.g. KKR) on the purchase of NPL portfolios.
• Advising Hanseatic Ship Asset Management, a subsidiary of Commerzbank, which was used to buy vessels from non-performing borrowers of Commerzbank. The vessels were later sold with a profit to KKR.