Latin Lawyer announced winners of its 17th annual Deal of the Year award winners at a gala at the Unique Hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, on May 11. Our team was awarded in the category of Banking & Finance for its excellence in advising Scotiabank on restructuring Phoenix Tower loans in Guatemala and El Salvador. This award confirms again the firm’s leadership in Central America.
BLP, through offices in El Salvador and Guatemala, advised Scotiabank, which acted as the lead arranger and broker of the transaction, leading a syndicate of banks that restructured the loan agreements.
Phoenix Tower is a US-based telecommunications group that operates in several Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Its global operations are present in 19 countries, managing 22,000 telecoms towers.
The borrower reorganized several loans through the deal, placing within the same debt structure loans taken out by Phoenix Tower’s US, Spanish, and Chilean subsidiaries. The portfolio now includes a $1.4 billion credit line, a $540 million delayed draw term loan, and a $56 million revolving credit. All debt matures in August 2027.
The $1.4 billion credit line relates to funds the company borrowed to finance the purchase of more than 3,800 telecom towers from Chilean counterpart WOM in a July deal. The transaction made Phoenix Tower the leading tower operator in Chile.
The transaction closed on August 10.
Thanks to our team that has helped the client over the years: María Inés Arenales and Carolina Saadeh in Guatemala; Zygmunt Brett, Luis Vega, and Fernando Farrar in El Salvador.