White & Case advises on Paraguay PPP road project
White & Case has advised on a ground-breaking financing for two road projects in Paraguay, the largest private investment in the country’s history, advising Sacyr Concesiones and Ocho as sponsors, Rutas del Este as borrower, and Rutas 2 and 7 Finance Limited, as issuer, in the financing for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the highway projects.
The project is Paraguay’s first public-private partnership and is a strategic development priority for the South American country, which is entirely land-locked and significantly land-travelled, in line with the Paraguayan government’s objective to improve the efficiency and quality of the country’s infrastructure. The project will service some 26,000 daily users once completed.
The financing structure for the project combines the securitisation of certain construction milestone payments evidenced by Pagos Diferidos de Inversión (PDIs) issued under the borrower’s concession contract; a $458 million zero coupon Rule 144A/Regulation S bond arranged by Goldman Sachs & Co., acting as sole global coordinator, and Goldman Sachs and Itaú BBA, acting as joint bookrunners; and a $200 million working capital and long-term project finance facilities provided by the Inter-American Development Bank.
White & Case worked on all aspects of the transaction, including the construction, operation and management arrangements for the project, as well as on a number of other project agreements, the securitisation structure, the capital markets financing and the project financing.
The White & Case team that advised on the transaction included partners Thomas Pate (pictured), John Vetterli, Charles Pesant, John Donovan and Steven Gee, partner of counsel Sylvia Chin, counsel Richard Graham and associates Katherine Draper, Ana Sophia Merlo and Andrea Rodriguez in New York; partner Carlos Viana and associates Lucia Benabentos and Gretel Martinez in Miami; partner Juan Manuel de Remedios and associate Julio Peralta in Madrid; and associates Antonio Montes de Oca and Juan Pablo Avila Ortiz in Mexico City.
