Practice

Nadia Bardawil is an English qualified lawyer employed as Senior Legal Counsel to Mubadala Investment Company’s UAE Investments Platform.  Nadia trained at Shearman & Sterling LLP, qualifying into their Project Finance department where she spent nine years as an associate in their London and Abu Dhabi offices before joining Mubadala.  Nadia spent four years as General Counsel to Mubadala’s renewable energy asset, Masdar before returning to Mubadala as a senior legal advisor to the platform.  Nadia has extensive experience advising on a variety of industrial and energy projects from both a financing and corporate perspective. 

Work History

January 2021 to present 

Platform Senior Legal Counsel, UAE Investments, Mubadala Investment Company PJSC
In my capacity as Senior Legal Counsel to the UAE Investments Platform, I have overall responsibility for all legal and governance advice to the UAE Industries vertical which comprises, Masdar, Mubadala Petroleum, EGA, Tabreed, the Mubadala utilities portfolio and Mubadala’ s new hydrogen sector. 

I remain a voting member of the Masdar investment committee.  

August 2017 to January 2021 – General Counsel, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PSJC – Masdar (a Mubadala subsidiary)

In my capacity as General Counsel, I had overall responsibility for the legal and governance function of Masdar’s business, managing a team of four lawyers and three support staff to ensure high quality and timely legal advice to all aspects of the business and smooth communication and cooperation between Masdar and its parent. 

I was a member of Masdar’s Executive Committee, sat as a voting member on the Investment Committee and acted as Secretary to the Board.  I was actively engaged in Masdar’s employee development programs, acting as a Masdar mentor and spearheading Masdar’s diversity and inclusion program.

I received various internal awards, such as the Mubadala Partnering Leader Award, and was included on the Chambers GC Influencers: UAE list in 2019. 

2006-2017
Shearman & Sterling LLP (London and Abu Dhabi)

I trained and qualified at Shearman & Sterling and spent nine years in their project finance department across their London and Abu Dhabi offices. I advised on a variety of project financing transactions, including multi-sourced financings, power, petrochemical, renewable and infrastructure projects on both lender and sponsor side.

Education

Brunel University, LL.B. Hons, 2003

Bar Admissions/Qualifications

England & Wales, 2008

Experience:
Highlights of my experience include advising:

Renewables

• Masdar in relation to:
  • various renewable energy acquisitions, including the East Rockingham Waste Recovery Plant in Australia;
  • the monetization of various of its assets (either through sell downs or refinancing);
  • various bid submissions such as the Red Sea Mega Utility Project in Saudi Arabia;
  • the financing and development of its renewable energy assets locally and abroad including the Tesla wind farm in Serbia, the 900MW solar PV plant in Dubai and the 300,000 tonne waste-to-energy plant in Sharjah;
  • all matters related to Masdar City development
• Lenders in relation to the financing of AES Solar group which owns 50 project companies with solar PV assets being developed and financed or operated in 6 jurisdictions including Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Bulgaria which involved due  diligence of these assets
• The sponsor in relation to the development of the Dorper Wind Farm in South Africa
• Lenders to the ACWA Power consortium with respect to the engineering, procurement, construction, operation, development, financing and design of the 200 MW (260MWp) Saih al Dahal independent power generation plant in Dubai using solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, the first private sector solar project in Dubai

Power and Water

• Lenders to the Oman Oil Company and LG International consortium for the Musandam IPP in Oman 
• Lenders on the refinancing of up to US$100,000,000 of SGA Marafiq’s equity investment in Jubail Waste and Power Company in Saudi Arabia
• Lenders supporting ACWA Power’s bid on the Mirfa IWPP in Abu Dhabi
• K-EXIM and other lenders supporting KEPCO’S bid on the Rabigh 2 IPP in Saudi Arabia
• K-EXIM supporting COBRA, INIMA, Zubair and NIFCO’s bid on Al Ghubrah in Oman
• Rabigh Arabian Water and Electricity Company in relation to the development of an independent water, steam and power project in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia
• K-EXIM, EXIM Bank of Malaysia and other lenders in the Malakoff bid for the Az-Zour IWPP in Kuwait
• Vale S.A. in the development of the 300MW coal-fired Moatize IPP, the first independent power project to be developed in Mozambique
• KEIC, US-EXIM and other lenders and agents in the US$2.1 billion hard mini-perm Al Dur IWPP, the first Middle Eastern power scheme to close in 2009, awarded Middle East IWPP Deal of the Year 2009 by Project Finance and Bahrain Islamic Deal of the Year 2009 by Islamic Finance
• ACWA Power with respect to its bid for the Barka 3 and Sohar 2 IWPPs in Oman
• HSBC Bank plc and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation as lead arrangers in the US$800 million financing of the construction and development of the Barka 2 Independent Power and Water Project, and the privatisation of the Al-Rusail Power Company S.A.O.C. in Oman
• HSBC Bank PLC, CIB and NBE (both Egyptian banks) in the US$250 million refinancing of the Sidi Krir Power Plant in Egypt
• Calyon, as lead arranger, in the development and financing of the US$2.3 billion, 2,000 MW Mesaieed Independent Power Project in Qatar
• Société Générale, HSBC Bank and other lenders and agents in the financing of the Al Ezzel natural gas fired generating plant in Bahrain
• BNP Paribas, CA-CIB, Natixis and other lenders and agents on the refinancing and expansion of the Taweelah A1/10 IWPP in Abu Dhabi
• Barclays Capital as agent to the lenders on the financing of the Shuweihat power and desalination project in Abu Dhabi

Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals

• The Sponsors with respect to the refinancing of the Angola LNG project
• The Dow Chemical Company in relation to the financing of the US$20 billion Sadara Integrated Chemicals Project in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, the largest-ever project financing in the petrochemicals sector and one of the largest multi-sourced financings in project finance history. The deal was named “Global Finance Deal of the Year: Project Finance” by the American Lawyer Global Legal Awards, 2013 and is currently nominated for Best Project Finance Deal at the IFLR Middle East & North Africa Awards 2013.
• The Dow Chemical Company through its wholly-owned subsidiary Dow Europe GmbH in respect of a joint venture with Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii A.Ş. to manufacture and commercialize carbon fiber and derivatives
• Dolphin Energy Limited and its sponsors in the development and financing of its cross-border gas production and distribution project 
• The Dow Chemical Company in relation to the structuring of core infrastructure and service contracts and arrangements agreements for the US$1.6 billion sale of its Styron division to Bain Capital
• The Dow Chemical Company in its proposed US$17.4 billion petrochemicals joint venture with Petroleum Industries Company of Kuwait

Infrastructure

• Asian Development Bank on its US$250 million financing of the Bangalore Metro Project, India.
• Standard Chartered Bank and ADCB on the common cached financing of the US$250 million Saadiyat Island Construction Village on behalf of TDIC in Abu Dhabi
• K-EXIM and other lenders to the preferred bidder for the Muharraq Waste Water and Sewage Treatment Plant in Bahrain.  This project was awarded Middle East Infrastructure Deal of the Year 2011 by Project Finance International
• Bank Audi SAL as agent to the lenders on the financing of the Lafarge Syrian Cement plant in Syria