Several firms act on Qatar’s loan to Argentina
Marval O’Farrell Mairal and White & Case have advised Qatar, and Cleary Gottlieb Argentina, on a 580,000,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) facility agreement, executed on 4 August, under the framework agreement approved by Necessity and Urgency Decree no. 404/2023.
The SDRs represent approximately $775,000,000 USD. The loan under the credit agreement bears interest at the variable SDR interest rate (4.033% as of 4 August 2023), with no additional surcharge or fee of any kind payable to Qatar.
Argentina used the proceeds of this credit line arrangement to make a scheduled payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the 30-month extended credit line of SDR 31,914,000,000,000 between Argentina and the IMF, which was approved by the IMF Executive Board on 25 March 2022.
This is a bridge loan for Argentina to pay its interest maturity with the IMF without affecting its reserves. The loan is scheduled to be repaid with the IMF’s planned disbursement to Argentina in August 2023.
Marval’s team was composed of partners Hernán Slemenson (pictured left), Cecilia M. Mairal, Roberto E. Silva, Pablo J. Gayol, Enrique V. Veramendi and Julio C. Rivera (s) and associates Martín I. Lanús, Milagros Ibarzábal and Juliana La Becca.
White & Case’s team included partners James Hardy (pictured centre) and Ian Clark, together with associate Prema Govind.
Cleary Gottlieb’s team was led by partners Juan Giráldez (pictured right) and Jim Ho, and included associate Ignacio Lagos. Partner Christopher P. Moore and associate Paul Kleist advised on arbitration matters and partner Richard Sultman and associate Peter North advised on tax matters. All lawyers are based in London, except Juan Giráldez, who is based in Sao Paulo, and Ignacio Lagos, who is based in New York.
