Milbank Represents Lenders in $250 Million Refinancing for Millicom International Cellular
WASHINGTON, DC, October 5, 2009 – Millicom International Cellular, S.A. has obtained a US$250 million syndicated term loan to refinance last year’s bridge loan that had been taken out for Millicom’s acquisition of the leading broadband and cable TV operator in Central America. The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. and Standard Bank Plc, which provided the funding for the new term loan.
In late 2008, Millicom, a NASDAQ-listed global telecommunications firm with operations in Asia, Latin America and Africa, acquired Amnet Telecommunications, which offers cable TV and broadband services in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras. Milbank represented Standard Bank and ABN AMRO Bank as the lenders in the US$200 million bridge facility provided last year to Millicom to finance that acquisition. In the new term loan, Milbank was responsible for the drafting and negotiation of all of the financing documents.
Glenn S. Gerstell, the Milbank partner who led the firm’s deal team, noted, “Refinancing a bridge loan always presents new issues as the parties now have to focus on longer-term matters, and here the borrower had in the interim made some corporate structural changes to refine its operations. But with the cooperation of local counsel in several Central American countries and Europe, the parties were able to conclude a successful refinancing.”
Mr. Gerstell is the managing partner of the Washington, DC, office and heads the firm’s global communications practice. In addition to Mr. Gerstell, the Milbank team representing the lenders included associates Gavin W. McKeon and Frederick S. Cristman.
Milbank acted as New York counsel to the lenders in the transaction and the lenders were advised by Guandique Segovia Quintanilla as to Salvadoran law, BLP Abogados, S.A. as to Costa Rican law, and Aguilar Castillo Love, S.A. as to Honduran Law. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as New York counsel to Millicom in the transaction and Millicom was advised by Nauta Dutilh as to Luxembourg law, Zurcher Odio & Raven as to Costa Rican law, and Bufete Melara & Asociados as to Honduran law.
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, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation and arbitration 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 Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, DC.