Thomas Herman
Thomas is a Partner in Energy & Infrastructure acting in France, Europe and Africa.
Thomas advises and assists clients on project development and project financing in the energy and infrastructure sectors in France, Europe, francophone North and sub-Saharan Africa. He is heavily involved in drafting and negotiating key project documents (concessions, PPP, construction contracts, O&M contracts, PPAs, GSAs and JV agreements).
He also advises regularly on complex regulatory matters and permitting issues.
Thomas has a public contract law background complimented by 10+ years of experience advising on complex cross border projects. He has the ability to straddle both the regulatory advice required on complex infrastructure products and the drafting of the underlying project documentation and analysis of bankability issues in the context of project financing.
His strong sector expertise means that he has also worked a number of landmark M&A transactions.
He has also advised on a number of projects across francophone Africa including in renewables and in the oil and gas and mining sectors and is a recognised expert for Algeria mainly in the oil and gas sector but also in relation to disputes arising from EPC contracts, custom issues and investment in Algeria generally.
Thomas has been described by clients as "available and responsive" for project finance (Legal 500 EMEA 2020) and he has been ranked as a rising star for Algeria (Foreign Firms) by Legal 500 EMEA since 2020. He was also mentioned by Best Lawyers France 2021 as "One to Watch" in two categories: Energy law; and Project Finance and Development.
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
- Global Switch on various EPC construction projects in France and in relation to their data center in Clichy and all agreements related to AMO (assistant maitre d'ouvrage), MOE (maitrise d'oeuvre) and MOD (maitrise d'ouvrage déléguée)
- Cellnex group on the EUR 5.5 billion acquisition of SFR’s passive telecommunications assets in France
- Renault on its strategic partnership with Verkor to develop, build and operate Verkor's first high performance battery gigafactory, in France (Dunkirk) to accelerate future sustainable mobility (Gigafactory Deal of the Year, IJGlobal Awards 2024)
- Verbund, Austria's leading utility company, in its partnership with TE H2, a joint venture between TotalEnergies and EREN Group, for the development of the "H2 Notos" project, a large green hydrogen project in Tunisia that will export green hydrogen to Central Europe through pipelines
- Neolithe, a developer and operator of factories processing non-recyclable waste to make construction aggregates on the financing of 3 factories in France, the review of its commercial agreements and the establishment of voluntary carbon credit sales contracts including analysis of construction structuring (EPC and EPCM)
- Veolia, Pearl Infrastructure and Norske Skog Golbey (NSG) on the financing, construction, operation and maintenance of a biomass energy plant to support NSG's energy transition. The plant will produce electricity and heat from waste and residue materials (Green Valley Energy Project)
- Verso Energy on the construction related aspects of the proposed development of a green hydrogen plant to be located at Carling-Saint-Avold in France (CarlHYng project)
- the lenders in the financing of a waste-to-energy project developed by Solvay, Veolia and DIF Capital Partners transitioning three coal fired boilers to a new boiler running on 350,000 tons per year of RDF
- Proparco, EIB and IFC on the development, on a project finance basis, of the first two Scaling Solar projects in Francophone Africa (Senegal) (Africa Renewables Deal of the Year 2019, IJGlobal Awards)
- EDF, International Finance Corporation and Government of Cameroon (as an investor) on the development and financing of the Nachtigal hydroelectric project (420MW) in Cameroon
Background
Thomas holds a Master's Degree in Business Public Law from the University of Sorbonne Paris, a Master's Degree in Public Contracts from the Institute of Politics Studies (Sciences Po) of Lyon and a Bachelor Degree in Political Sciences from the University of Bergen (Norway).
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