In Practice

Project financing co-located renewable assets

Targets for domestic power decarbonisation have recently been accelerated by the UK government, including the goal to quintuple the instalment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) by 2030. (BESS store electrical energy in batteries for later use and can therefore manage the intermittency of renewable energy). Consequently, it is expected that the co-location of larger-scale renewable generation projects with BESS assets (where the BESS is installed alongside another power generation source) will be an important feature of the UK’s energy transition. Norton Rose Fulbright recently advised Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners on the innovative project financing of the Cleve Hill Solar Park,¹ a 373 MW solar PV + 150 MW BESS project in Kent (Cleve Hill). Cleve Hill is both the only solar Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project under construction in the UK, and the project with the largest corporate Power Purchase Agreement for solar offtake in the UK. Cleve Hill serves as a useful case study in crafting a bankable legal framework for the project financing of utility-scale co-located projects.

NAV facilities to PERE funds

This In Practice article looks at the key features of net asset value facilities (NAV facilities) for private equity real estate funds and discusses some of the points of difference when compared to NAV facilities for private equity buyout funds.

Navigating the new landscape of AI-driven credit assessment: legal and regulatory considerations for financial institutions

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into credit assessment processes has fundamentally transformed how financial institutions evaluate borrower risk and make lending decisions. As AI systems become increasingly sophisticated, they present both unprecedented opportunities for enhanced risk management and complex legal challenges that require careful navigation. This In Practice article examines the key legal and regulatory considerations that financial institutions must address when implementing AI-driven credit assessment systems.

Supreme Court motor finance commission ruling: what next for lenders?

In this In Practice article we consider what comes next, after the Supreme Court judgment on secret commission payments in motor vehicle finance transactions.

Court of Appeal upholds established principles to reject novel claim for crypto growth losses

In BSV  Claims v Bittylicious   [2025] EWCA Civ 661, the English Court of Appeal handed down a significant judgment on quantifying losses in cryptocurrency claims. In this In Practice article the authors summarise the decision and provide some practical takeaways.

When “simplification” is anything but simple: a slimmer FCA Handbook but the website continues to grow

A common observation about the FCA Handbook is that, with over 13,000 pages across more than 3,000 chapters, it is enormous.¹ For comparison, that’s more pages than ten copies of War and Peace. This In Practice article considers the impact of the FCA’s shift towards an “outcomes focus” on the content of the Handbook and how material is shifting to the FCA’s website.

Originator funding lifecycle: the role of the forward flow

In this In Practice article the authors consider the appeal of forward flow transactions as an alternative to private securitisations or warehouse facilities for non-bank lenders such as fintechs needing to scale.

Schemes, redress and litigation: approaches to dealing with mass consumer liability events

This In Practice article considers different mechanisms for consumer redress including schemes of arrangement, Financial Conduct Authority redress schemes and redress via the courts and the extent to which they achieve finality for a corporate party. The article also considers the impact of mass compensation events on investors where the loan or other financial product, the subject of the redress scheme, has been securitised. At the time of publication, the Supreme Court’s judgment in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd  was not yet handed down and this article therefore does not consider the impact of that decision.

A Brexit re-set? How will the UK’s accession to the 2019 Hague Convention impact English legal opinions?

This In Practice article highlights the significance of the UK’s accession to the 2019 Hague Convention and considers the relevance to English legal opinions.

Third-party releases and cross-border restructurings: enforceability of UK-issued nonconsensual third-party releases in the United States

The UK and US implemented cross-border structuring procedures to facilitate, among other things, international comity and the effective structuring and reorganisation of distressed entities with international operations. A key component of any such international structuring is recognition of the actions undertaken in the applicable jurisdiction (eg the UK) in other relevant jurisdictions (eg the US). Nonconsensual third-party releases are an important tool in a practitioners' toolbox to facilitate an effective restructuring. Recently, case law in the US both: 

(i) invalidated nonconsensual releases in the context of Ch 11 proceedings in the US; and
(ii) upheld the continued legality of nonconsensual third-party releases in cross-border matters under Ch 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code (which chapter governs US recognition of non-US restructuring proceedings).
 

In light of those developments, this In Practice article provides an overview of fundamental concepts underlying nonconsensual third-party releases and explores their continued utility as an available mechanism to facilitate UK-US restructurings.