DLA Piper represented Argentina’s Province of Chubut in connection with its consent solicitation to modify the terms of its US$650 million 7.75% secured amortizing notes due 2026.
The notes were originally issued by the Province in 2016 and secured by oil and gas royalties with operations in the Province. The consent solicitation was successfully completed on December 17, 2020, with bondholders tendering over 90% of the notes. By virtue of the application of the collective action clause under the notes, the notes’ maturity date was extended by four years, until 2030, and the interest rate and principal amortization provisions were amended to provide the Province significant payment relief during 2021, 2022 and 2023.
“DLA Piper is honored to have been selected to advise the Province of Chubut in connection with its debt restructuring,” said Marcelo Etchebarne, country head of DLA Piper Argentina, who led the firm’s deal team along with Christopher Paci, chair of DLA Piper’s Capital Markets practice group, and partners Justo Segura and Nicolas Teijeiro. “With strong support from its bond investors, the Province has been able to achieve a more sustainable debt repayment schedule in the face of Argentina’s current economic crisis. The closing of this transaction marks the second successfully completed subsovereign debt restructuring, following our representation of the Province of Mendoza in its restructuring of US$590 million of international bonds in October 2020.”
“We were pleased to bring together a joint team from our Buenos Aires and New York offices with extensive experience advising sovereign and subsovereign issuers in complex capital markets transactions to assist the Province in executing its debt restructuring,” Paci added.
In addition to Etchebarne, Paci (both of New York), Segura and Teijeiro (both of Buenos Aires), the DLA Piper team advising the Province of Chubut included associates Marcos Taiana, Marco D’Angelo, Juan Maria Rosatto (all of Buenos Aires) and John Wei (Boston).
DLA Piper’s global capital markets team represents issuers and underwriters in registered and unregistered equity, equity-linked and debt capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings, follow-on equity offerings, equity-linked securities offerings, and offerings of investments grade and high-yield debt securities.
