Asafo & Co dents HFW to bolster its project finance practice

Asafo & Co dents HFW to bolster its project finance practice

New hires include Andrew Thomas, HFW's project finance head, and Winston Bell-Gam

French law firm Asafo & Co has announced the hiring of a couple of project finance lawyers from HFW in London in a bid to strengthen the growth of its international business.

The new hires include Andrew Thomas and Winston Bell-Gam. The duo joins Africa focused French firm as partners. Together they bring along huge and varied experience across the project development space.

Thomas' focus on project finance includes the power, pipeline, infrastructure, healthcare and transportation sectors. He advises developers, financial institutions, corporations and governments on a range of infrastructure projects.

Bell-Gam's practice focuses on project acquisition, financing and development.

Thomas was associated with HWF for just under three years as head of project finance. Overall, he has experience of three-decade. He started his career with Linklaters and later progressed to heading the UK practices of US firms including Chadbourne and Parke, Akin Gump and Gibson Dunn. He was also the founder of Fasken Martineau's Africa-focused practice. Before joining HFW, he headed the banking practice at Hunton & Williams.

Bell-Gam joined HFW in 2018 from Shakespeare Martineau. Previously he worked at Winston & Strawn, Ashurst and White & Case. He had adequate exposure to the African market after having a spell in-house as head of legal at the East African Development Bank.

The duo's arrival takes Asafo's partner headcount to 50. The firm now has eight offices globally, five of which are located in Africa.