The concessionaire behind a motorway in central Colombia has hired Castro, Leiva, Rendon, Criales in Bogotá as local counsel to acquire financing worth more than US$356 million from a host of international and local lenders as part of the country’s ambitious fourth generation (4G) infrastructure programme.
Goldman Sachs, as structuring bank, called on Clifford Chance LLP in New York and Washington, DC and Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría (Colombia).
PPU also advised the local lenders, which provided 686 billion Colombian pesos (US$222.6 million); international lender Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica, which provided US$136 million worth of dollar-denominated funding; as well as Citibank and Cititrust, which acted as executors. BLP (Costa Rica) in San José also provided counsel to the lenders.
The financing includes a liquidity facility to be granted by Colombian infrastructure bank Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional, which called on Holland & Knight LLP in Bogotá and Miami.
The transaction closed on 13 July.
Latin Lawyer believes Reed Smith LLP and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP provided New York counsel to Citibank and Cititrust, and the concessionaire respectively, but could not confirm this prior to publication.
The Alto Magdalena concession will use the funds to build, operate and maintain a 190-kilometre motorway spanning the central Colombian departments of Tolíma, Caldas and Cundinamarca.
Less than a month ago, the same firms who worked on the Alto Magdalena financing helped a consortium charged with expanding and maintaining a highway in northern Colombia agree a five-tranche US$470 million financing package. Four months ago the group guided the 4G infrastructure programme’s first financing for the Pacífico 3 motorway in Colombia’s interior, worth around US$670 million.
Counsel to the concessionaire
Castro, Leiva, Rendon, Criales
Partners Marcela Castro, José Ignacio Leiva and Carlos Padilla in Bogotá
Counsel to Goldman Sachs, Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica, Banco de Bogotá, Banco de Occidente, Banco AV Villas and Banco Popular
Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría (Colombia)
Partners Juan Fernando Gaviria and Jorge Di Terlizzi, and associates Carolina Duque, Cristina Díaz, María De Bedout, María José Ariza, Andrea Castillo, Isabella Ariza, Felipe Londoño, María Margarita Lorduy, Erika Serrano, Maria del Rocío Vargas, Laura Isaza, Camilo Vivas, Ana María Sanchez, Roberto Camacho, Paula Buriticá and Andrea Sánchez in Bogotá
BLP (Costa Rica)
Partner Eduardo Calderón and associates Julio Castellanos and Juan José López in San José
Counsel to Goldman Sachs
Clifford Chance LLP
Partner Gianluca Bachiochi and associates Alberto Haito, Luis Maria Clouet and Alejandro Espitia in New York
Counsel to Citibank and Cititrust
Philippi Prietocarrizosa Ferrero DU & Uría (Colombia)
Partner Javier Valle and associate Nicolas Tirado and Diana Rueda in Bogotá
Counsel to Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional
Holland & Knight LLP
Partner Norberto Quintana and visiting attorney Mariana Guzian Foreign in Miami
Holland & Knight (Colombia)
Partner Enrique Gómez-Pinzón, and associates Lucas Saffon and Maria Juliana Saa in Bogotá
