Sidley Austin successfully represented Petron Corporation, the Philippines’ largest oil refining and marketing company and a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation, in connection with the financing of its US$577.3 million acquisition of ExxonMobil’s downstream oil business in Malaysia.
The financing transaction included a two-year acquisition bridge loan with Petron Oil & Gas International Sdn. Bhd., a Petron subsidiary, as borrower, which was used primarily to finance the acquisition. It also included five-year working capital facilities.
Partner Alex Lloyd led the Sidley team, which also consisted of counsel Robert Mason and associates Benjamin Carale and Olivia Ngan.
Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Lloyd said, “We are honored to have had the opportunity to advise Petron in its successful acquisition financing transaction. This has followed the initial public offering of GT Capital in April, on which we represented the issuer. We are very pleased to have closed two significant transactions in the Philippines in recent weeks and look forward to further utilizing our corporate finance experience in the Southeast Asia markets to assist more clients in the near future.”
In 2012, Sidley celebrates 30 years in Asia as one of only a few U.S. law firms with a continuous presence in the region for three decades. During that time, we have earned a reputation as a leading law firm in Asia, with extensive knowledge in the critical areas for international business and a sensitivity to the cultural differences that impact our clients who are considering and executing cross-border transactions.
Sidley has one of the largest and most active Asia Pacific corporate finance teams, with over 70 legal professionals in the group. Our reputation for creativity is evidenced by IFLR Asia’s 2010 award, Most Innovative U.S. Law Firm. We are also recognized for our corporate finance practice by legal directories such as Chambers, Asia Pacific Legal 500 and IFLR 1000. We have acted on several corporate finance transactions in the Southeast Asia region, such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, as well as in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Sidley Austin LLP is one of the premier full-service law firms, with approximately 1700 lawyers practicing in 18 U.S. and international cities, including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Repeating its performance in the inaugural 2010 survey, Sidley received the most first-tier national rankings of any U.S. law firm in the 2011/12 U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” survey. Sidley was also named the U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Law Firm of the Year” in both Corporate Law and Securities Regulation in the 2011/12 survey (the first year of such designations). BTI, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only three firms to have been in the top ten of the BTI Client Service rankings every year since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and as number one in three of those years.
