LatinFinance - January/February 2016 - 51

LatAm Staff: 120
LatAm Offices: Bogotá and Medellín
Remarkable Deals: Trafigura's
hybrid loan and Tribeca's sale of the
Termocandelaria Power stake

in one or two practice areas to ensure that
they are knowledgeable, experienced, and
recognized in their respective niches and
thus better able to provide valuable advice.
Fandiño adds that as a member of the
Latin American law firm alliance Affinitas,
Gómez-Pinzón has access to three other
regional member firms when serving
clients in cross-border deals.
The firm demonstrated expertise,
creativity and collaboration in its efforts
to complete the Trafigura loan, one of
the most complex syndications of the
year in Latin America. Lenders, advisors
and the borrower crafted a structure that
combined elements of corporate loans,
project financing and shipping loan, with
a substantial security package. Moreover,
as advisor to the four Andean entities that

RICARDO FANDIÑO,
GÓMEZ-PINZÓN ZULETA

"WE SAW LESS
PRESENCE OF
CORPORATE ISSUERS
IN THE INTERNATIONAL BOND MARKET
IN 2015, AFTER THE
DEPRECIATION OF
THE COLOMBIAN PESO
AND THE DROP IN OIL
PRICES"

bought a 61% stake in Termocandelaria
Power, Gómez-Pinzón was part of one the
largest energy M&A deals in Colombia.
While international bond transactions
typically provide a steady flow of work
for the firm, the year just gone has been
slower in that market, Fandiño says, noting
that Gómez-Pinzón expects to see more
infrastructure deals. "We saw less presence
of corporate issuers in the international
bond market in 2015, after the depreciation
of the Colombian peso and the drop in oil
prices, but we are doing and seeing a lot of
infrastructure financing in our pipeline,"
Fandiño says. The first and second wave
of Colombia's 4G toll road programs are in
various stages of development and financial
negotiations.
Private equity transactions and
acquisitions in the energy or transport
sectors promise activity for the lawyers. "It
is convenient to buy in Colombia now, given
the exchange rate against the US dollar.
Anything is fifty percent cheaper than it was
a year ago," Fandiño says. LF

BOND HOUSE

BANK OF AMERICAMERRILL LYNCH
As a lack of issuance from
Brazilian borrowers last
year drove bond volumes
across the region down
to their lowest levels since
2009, Bank of AmericaMerrill Lynch emerged to
lead debt capital markets
activity
The bank moved to the top of the league
tables of bookrunners on cross-border
bonds in the 12 months to the end of
September, from fifth place the previous
year. Impressively, it increased the volume
of deals it worked on - from $12.9 billion to
$13.7 billion, according to Dealogic data - in
a year when the total value of deals in the
market fell to $93 billion, from $143 billion
the previous year. The US bank worked on
some of the largest and most innovative
deals in the period, including a ground-

LatAm Offices: Buenos Aires, São
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago,
Bogotá, Mexico City, Monterrey,
Mexico, Lima
Remarkable Deals: Dominican
Republic's $2.5bn LME and BRF's
€500m green bond

breaking transaction for the Dominican
Republic, a one-day switch tender for Oi
and several deals for Mexico's Pemex,
during the awards period.
The year was characterized by brief
opportunities for issuance, says Max
Volkov, head of Latin America debt capital
markets at BAML. In Brazil, the Lava Jato
corruption probe locked Brazilian issuers
out of the bond market from November
2014 to April the following year. The
country's issuers remained out of favor for
the rest of the year.
"Our advice to the issuers nowadays is to
monitor market conditions on a daily basis,
and if the market is good for a day, it could
be a window," says Volkov.
"Don't be discouraged by negative price
action or volatility. Investor appetite can
change in a heartbeat."
While some banks may have
concentrated their businesses on Brazil
during the boom years, BAML has
remained spread out across Latin America,
Volkov says.
In January, the bank led the Dominican
Republic's $2.5 billion dual-tranche issue,
which garners LatinFinance's Sovereign
Liability Management Exercise of the
Year. The government used the proceeds
to broker a deal with Venezuela's PDVSA,
getting a 50% discount on its debt. The deal
paved the way for Jamaica to follow with a
similarly-structured $2 billion deal in July.
Mexico's Pemex, which wins
LatinFinance's Corporate Issuer of the
Year award, was one of BAML's most active
debt capital markets clients. The bank led
Pemex's 24.3 billion peso (then $1.6 billion)
Euroclearable bond, the first corporate
bond from the country marketed through
the clearinghouse, in February.

January/February 2016 - L ATINFINA NCE.COM 51
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