Milbank Represents Leaders in $500 Million Debt Recapitalization For Brazilian Telecom GVT
Closing Marks Completion of One of this Year’s Largest Latin American Telecom Financings
WASHINGTON D.C., July 24, 2006 – In one of the largest Latin American telecom financings in the past year, Brazilian telecoms operator Global Village Telecom (GVT) has completed a $500 million debt recapitalization. The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, led by partners Glenn S. Gerstell and Debra Alligood White, represented the lenders with respect to the recapitalization.
Commenting on the deal, Ms. White noted, “This transaction presented a number of special challenges because of the diversity of the creditor group and the complexity of the exchange structure. Nevertheless the parties were able to develop a structure that created a win-win situation, providing the company with greater flexibility and our clients with a significant stake in the company's future growth."
In addition to Mr. Gerstell and Ms. White, the Milbank team representing the lenders included associates Gavin W. McKeon and Jeanette Cruz.
About the Transaction
The recapitalization involved an exchange of vendor financing notes for a combination of senior secured notes and convertible subordinated pay-in-kind notes. The lenders were represented as to US law by Milbank, who negotiated and drafted the key financing documents, and as to Brazilian law by Souza, Cescon Avedissian, Barrieu e Flesch and as to Dutch and Netherlands Antilles law by DeBrauw Blackstone Westbroek. The Company was represented by Allen & Overy LLP as to US, Dutch and Netherlands Antilles law and by Pinheiro Neto Advogados as to Brazilian law.
About GVT
Established in 1999, GVT is a fast growing facilities-based telecommunications and Internet solutions provider in Brazil. GVT offers a diversified portfolio of innovative products and advanced solutions for the conventional telephony, corporate data, broadband and Internet services, and VOiP markets. The company is controlled by Magnum Telecom and the IDB Group.
About Milbank
Active in Latin America for many years, Milbank has played a prominent role in some of the region’s most innovative and complex transactions, from project financings and restructurings to securities offerings and IPOs. Milbank’s Global Securities/M&A/General Corporate Group is renowned for its leadership in sophisticated cross-border transactions and combines both the transactional and regulatory expertise necessary to successfully negotiate and close mergers & acquisitions, financing, outsourcing and other transactions across a wide range of industries.
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance and transactions, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.