Paul Hastings Wins at 2021 Latin Lawyer Deal of the Year Awards

New York – Paul Hastings LLP, a premier global finance firm, is pleased to announce that the firm advised on two award-winning deals at Latin Lawyer’s 16^th annual Deal of the Year Awards.

Project finance: energy and natural resources:

Panamanian gas-fired power project secures finance

Paul Hastings represented Natixis and SMBC as coordinated lead arrangers, and other lenders (which involved a syndicate of twelve banks - Bank of China, ICBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, Sabadell, Scotiabank, and Societe Generale joined the transaction, as well as some local lenders including Banco Aliado, Banco Nacional, Caja de Ahorro, and Mega ICBC Bank) in the US$740 million senior financing of an approximately 670 megawatt combined cycle gas-to-power project that involved the development and construction of a natural gas-fired power plant, together with all interconnections and certain associated infrastructure, including two transmission lines, and involved diligence on and coordination with a separately funded expansion of AES’s LNG receiving terminal and natural gas pipeline to power station,  on Telfers Island, Panama, with AES Panama and InterEnergy as Sponsors.  The Project has three 20-year PPAs with Panamanian distribution companies Distco’s and an LNG fuel supply agreement with Total. The project adds significant baseload generation to Panama’s generation sector.

This financing closed simultaneously with the GIP HoldCo financing, on which our Paul Hastings team also worked, bringing over $1 billion in capital funding to the Panama’s energy sector.  These deals represent a transformative step forward for Panamanian energy stability, and were previously honored at the 2021 IJGlobal Awards for Power Deal of the Year.

The Paul Hastings team included Robert Kartheiser, Maria Leonor Tobia, Louise Farias, Bruna Rey, Anna Barbosa, Eduardo Morande, Juan Martin Estrada, Joyce Xu, and Matthew Smith.

Restructuring:

Avianca emerges from Chapter 11 process

Paul Hastings advised an ad hoc group of certain holders (the “2023 noteholders”) of Avianca’s 9.000% senior secured notes due 2023 (the “2023 notes”) in connection with the Chapter 11 cases of Avianca Holdings and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries (together, “Avianca”) pending in the U.S. bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York.  In the Chapter 11 cases, Avianca sought and obtained approval of debtor-in-possession financing in the approximate amount of US$2 billion (the “DIP financing”). The DIP financing – inclusive of rollups of existing debt and purchase loan consideration – consists of a US$1.27 billion Tranche A senior loan/bonds – of which a portion was a new series of secured notes issued pursuant to Rule 144A/Regulation S, and a US$722 million Tranche B subordinated loan. It includes approximately US$1.21 billion in new funds.

This debt restructuring was critical for the survival of Avianca, an airline crucial to the economy of Colombia and much of South America.

The Paul Hastings team included Pedro Jimenez, Cathleen McLaughlin, Kristopher Villarreal, Andrew Tenzer, Alex Herman, and Leah Lopez.

These awards follow additional recognition for the firm’s Latin America practice, including:

• The firm was ranked in Legal500’s Latin America guide in Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate and M&A, and Projects and Energy.
• The firm advised on two transactions that were honored at the 2021 IJGlobal Awards, including:
  • Power Deal of the Year: Project Gatun
  •  Petrochemicals Deal of the Year: Braskem Idesa Refinancing
• The firm advised on three transactions that were honored at the 2021 LatinFinance Project and Infrastructure Awards:
  • Airport Financing of the Year: The Lima Airport Expansion Financing
  • Infrastructure Financing of the Year: EnfraGen’s US$1,76 Billion Financing
  • Local Currency Financing of the Year: Puerta de Hiero’s Social Bond
• The Infrastructure and Energy Team was again named a “Band 1” team for LatAm by Chambers.
• Latin Lawyer recognized the EnfraGen Refinancing as “Project Finance Deal of the Year.”
• Paul Hastings was ranked by Latinvex in the top 3 international law firms operating in Latin America, and Arturo Carrillo, Michael Fitzgerald, Joy Gallup, Robert Kartheiser, and Cathleen McLaughlin were recognized by Latinvex among Latin America's Top 100 Lawyers of 2021.

Dedicated to helping the world’s leading Wall Street and global investment banks, asset managers and corporations achieve their business and legal goals, Paul Hastings is a premier global finance law firm with elite teams in finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and litigation. We are one of only a handful of law firms ranked across multiple core finance areas including: structured credit, leveraged finance, private credit, capital markets and real estate finance.

Our unmatched client service has helped us become one of the legal profession’s most admired firms, known for a diverse and highly collaborative culture that delivers innovative solutions.