Milbank Closes Largest-Ever Latin American High Yield Offering
$1 Billion Offering Completes Successful Restructuring of Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V.
NEW YORK, February 12, 2007 – In the largest-ever Latin American high yield offering, Mexican company Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (“Vitro”) has completed a $1 billion high yield note offering the proceeds of which will be used to recapitalize substantially all of its outstanding short term and long term debt. The offering, with joint lead managers Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Lehman Brothers, covered the sale of $300,000,000 8.625% Senior Notes due 2012 and $700,000,000 9.125% Senior Notes due 2017. Concurrent with the transaction, Vitro also successfully completed a tender offer, and defeasance, of the outstanding $250,000,000 Senior Secured Guaranteed Notes due 2011 of its subsidiary Vitro Envases Norteamerica, S.A. de C.V. As a leading Mexican company, Vitro’s offering was closely followed by the financial community, and Fitch Ratings upgraded its initial rating three notches to ‘B’ from ‘CCC,’ citing improvement in the company’s capital structure and debt profile, as well as the improvement in Vitro’s operations.
The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented Vitro in negotiating, structuring and closing the transaction.
The Milbank team representing Vitro included Howard Kelberg and his New York-based partners Joy K. Gallup and Richard J. Wight, associates Frank Vivero, Cecilio Castillero, Pedro Reyes, Michelle Ko, Ellie J. Kwack and Jorge Oria, and partners Andrew Walker (tax) and Wilbur Foster (creditors rights). Mexico-based Kuri Breña, Sánchez Ugarte, Corcuera Y Aznar provided local counsel to Vitro with respect to Mexican law.
About Vitro
Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (“Vitro”) [NYSE: VTO; BMV: VITROA], headquartered in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, is a diversified international holding company that conducts substantially all of its operations through subsidiaries. One of the world’s leading glass producers, Vitro is a major participant in two principal glass manufacturing businesses: flat glass and glass containers. Its subsidiaries serve multiple product markets, including construction and automotive glass; food and beverage, wine, liquor, cosmetics and pharmaceutical glass containers. Vitro also produces raw materials and equipment and capital goods for industrial use, which are vertically integrated in the Glass Containers businesses unit. Vitro has joint ventures with major world-class partners and industry leaders that provide its subsidiaries with access to international markets, distribution channels and state-of-the-art technology. Vitro’s subsidiaries have facilities and distribution centers in nine countries, located in North, Central and South America, and Europe, and export to more than 45 countries worldwide. (website: www.vitro.com)
About Milbank
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, Singapore and Beijing.