WASHINGTON, DC, October 6, 2008 – Millicom International Cellular, S.A. obtained a US$200 million loan to finance its acquisition of broadband and cable television businesses in Central America. The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, represented ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Standard Bank Plc, as the lead arrangers and lenders, in drafting and negotiating the financing documents.
NASDAQ-listed Millicom purchased the stock of Amnet Telecommunications, which has an enterprise value of $510 million, and which is the leading provider of broadband and cable television services in Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador, provides fixed telephony in El Salvador and Honduras, and provides corporate data services in the those countries as well as Guatemala and Nicaragua.
The bridge loan, which is expected to be refinanced within a year, was made by two of Millicom’s relationship banks to a special purpose acquisition vehicle.
Glenn S. Gerstell, the Milbank partner who led the firm’s deal team, noted, “You probably couldn’t have picked a more difficult week in the international financial markets to close a large and complicated cross-border acquisition loan than this week. The fact that this deal closed so successfully is a tribute to the good working relationship enjoyed by all of the parties and their counsel. And our deep experience in Latin American telecom financing gave us the ability to handle the challenges that are inevitably presented in these kinds of deals.”
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 J. Christina Broch. Milbank acted as principal counsel to the lenders and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek advised the lenders as to Netherlands Antilles law. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as New York counsel to Millicom in the financing and Bingham McCutchen advised Millicom on the acquisition. Millicom was advised by STvB Advocaten as to Netherlands Antilles law and by Nauta Dutilh as to Luxembourg 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 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.
Contact
Glenn S. Gerstell
T: +1-202-835-7585
ggstell@milbank.com