Herbert Smith Freehills advises VTTI on the acquisition of Adriatic LNG, Italy's largest LNG terminal

Leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has advised VTTI, a Dutch energy storage and infrastructure company, on the acquisition of a majority interest in Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l. from ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy. The target owns the Adriatic LNG regasification terminal operating in the waters off Cavarzere (Rovigo), Italy. This is Italy's largest offshore infrastructure for unloading, storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with an annual technical regasification capacity of 9.6 billion cubic meters.

The transaction involved the sell-down by Exxon and Qatar Energy of their 92.7% interest in the target. The remaining 7.3% are owned by Snam, Italy's state-controlled energy infrastructure company and gas grid operator, which exercised a pre-emptive right to increase its stake to 30%. On completion of the transaction, VTTI will own 70%, and Snam will own 30%, of the quotas in Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l..

A cross border team from Herbert Smith Freehills supported VTTI with the corporate, financing and regulatory aspects of the transaction.

The HSF London corporate team was led by Reza Dadbakhsh, assisted over the course of the transaction by associates Sara Midori Martinez, Denitsa Vasileva, Matt Berlansky and Tihomir Svilanovic, with tax input from partner Will Arrenberg and senior associate Graham Crocker.

The HSF London finance team was led by Dhananjaya Chak with support from senior associates Edgar Monteiro and Alex Shindler-Kelly and associates Wilson Lu and Tom Eldred. Nick May provided hedging input with support from associate Konstantin Korennoy.

The HSF Milan corporate and energy regulatory team was led by partner Francesca Morra, assisted by senior associate Giacomo Gavotti and associate Chiara Miccolis.

The HSF Milan finance team was led by Simone Egidi, with support from associate Francisco Santini.

The HSF Competition team was led by Kyriakos Fountoukakos in Brussels and Vass Karadakova in London assisted by Of Counsel Peter Rowland and associate Jose Muñoz.

The closing of the transaction is expected by the end of 2024 and is subject to regulatory approvals.