Brigard & Urrutia and Gómez-Pinzón work on Colombian "first"
June 28, 2007, Latin Lawyer

Latin Lawyer magazine reported on the $450 million subordinated notes offering by Bancolombia, Colombia's largest bank  White & Case advised UBS and JP Morgan, who acted as underwriters on the deal.

Howard Kleinman, a partner in the Securities Practice at White & Case in New York, says it is the first subordinated note to be issued by a Colombian financial institution in the international capital markets, and states particular care had to be taken to comply with recently enacted requirements in Colombia on how funds raised can be used.

"There is an exemption to the limitations if you use your proceeds from foreign raisings to buy dollar-denominated assets," he said, "such as a loan portfolio.  Bancolombia bought a dollar-denominated loan portfolio from its Panamanian subsidiary, so we were able to qualify for exemption from the quite restrictive deposit requirement."

Kleinman led the White & Case team, which also included partner Sang Ji, counsel Daniel Nam, and associates Bibiana Jaimes, John Guzman, Anita Girdhari, Rufina Litvak, Heather Giannandrea and Jennifer Charlesworth.