Arnold & Porter LLP’s client Hungary recently closed a global offering of $3 billion in debt securities via BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities and J.P. Morgan. The $3 billion offering consisted of $1 billion Notes due 2019 and $2 billion Notes due 2024. The offering was one of the largest deals so far this year in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region.
The Arnold & Porter corporate team was led by partners Whitney Debevoise in Washington, D.C. and Steven Tepper in New York. They were assisted by associates Marian Saxena in Washington, D.C., Raquel Saavedra in New York, and Ben Kieft in London. Partner Cynthia Mann, based in New York, handled tax-related matters.
In 2011, Arnold & Porter shepherded Hungary through a blockbuster $3 billion offering of its 6.375% Notes due 2021 and a $750 million offering of its 7.625% Notes due 2041. The offering represented the largest Central and East European sovereign issue ever at the time and the first 30-year benchmark US Dollar issue from the CEE region.
Arnold & Porter has a long and distinguished history of advising international governments in financial transactions and related issues and undertakings. It has been active in representing the ministries of finance and central banks of many sovereign governments since well before the original debt crisis of the 1980s. It has also been involved in numerous financial transactions on behalf of sovereigns throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia. Among its sovereign clients are Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Turkey, Tunisia, Panama and Venezuela. In addition, the firm has represented and advised a number of the world’s most prominent multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, OPIC, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Bank for International Settlements, in significant financial transactions and other novel legal assignments.
