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Rayner my parade! The importance of specialist advice.
Jemma Brimblecombe
Kingsley Napley LLP has supported longstanding client Harwell Science and Innovation Campus to secure £300m of financing to help it expand and build out new laboratory, advanced manufacturing and office space.
Kingsley Napley advised on all property and construction elements of the financing for Harwell.
The finance facility was secured by the campus public-private partnership – a joint venture between Brookfield, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
Over the next two years Harwell will use the additional funding secured to build 440,000 sq. ft of new Laboratory and R&D buildings across the campus.
The investment and development facility has been provided by a consortium comprising Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Axa.
Jim Stretton, CFO & COO at Harwell Campus said,
The new finance facility will be transformative for the campus. There is a chronic shortage of high calibre lab and R&D space across Oxfordshire which is holding incredible companies back. The new developments this facility will fund will accelerate our ability to effectively support our thriving innovation ecosystem."
This will include Tech Foundry, 220,000 sq. ft of Advanced Manufacturing space, and the Linear Accelerator Building, L^B, a landmark laboratory building for starting and scaling science organisations, alongside a number of further developments across the campus.
The announcement follows a number of recent developments at the campus, including the ground-breaking in April on Moderna’s Innovation and Technology Centre, a facility for research, development and manufacturing of mRNA vaccines for respiratory conditions and diseases, and in May, the recently constructed National Satellite Test Facility signed its inaugural contract with Airbus Defence and Space UK.
The Kingsley Napley team was led by partners Paul Harbour, Ian Silverblatt and Peter Metcalfe and legal director Angela Must.
Peter Metcalfe said,
the whole team at Kingsley Napley congratulates Harwell on securing this significant finance facility and we look forward to continuing to support Harwell in the future on the exciting new developments on the Campus."
Macfarlanes (led by partner Laura Bretherton) advised Harwell on the banking elements of the financing and Allen & Overy (led by partners Mark Manson-Bahr and Hayden Cameron) advised the consortium of lenders.
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