Katan Hirachand
Managing Director, Société Générale
Katan joined SG in December 2005 having spent 5 years in the industry with BG Group based in Brazil,Tunisia and Iran. He has cultivated a wide experience of advisory and arranging roles across the energy sector including LNG, refineries, pipelines and upstream. He leads a number of landmark advisory deals for the bank including Mozambique LNG, Brass LNG (for strategic investors) and floating LNG mandates. He also led the financing of the landmark Egyptian Refining Company financing. He has worked extensively with multi-laterals, DFI's and export credit agencies and is leading several new initiatives in the bank. ERC, which closed in 2012, won a host of plaudits for its structure and ability to weather multiple political and financial storms. The USD 2.6 billion financing won the outright deal of the year in 2012 and represents the largest non-recourse financing in Africa to date. It has an unprecedented capital structure comprising DFI's, commercial banks, multi-laterals and private equity. Katan is a regular industry speaker and has a number of publications to his name. In 2012, he was nominated for the Financial News “Rising Stars” under 40 award. In 2013, he became the first representative from an investment bank to secure a position on the Gastech steering committee highlighting his contribution to the industry. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from King's College London and is holder of the Tadion-Rideal prize for contribution to Molecular Science.