Bond Offering Proceeds Help Brazilian Company Secure Bridge Loan
July 29, 2008, The Daily Business Review

White & Case advised Braskem S.A. on a $500 million bond offering.  The Brazilian petrochemical company used the proceeds from the offering to pay off a portion of a $1.2 bridge loan.

"The event that made this offering possible is that the country achieved an investment grade rating [from Standard & Poors]," said Mark Bagnall, a partner in the Corporate and Financial Services Practice at White & Case in Miami.

"We'd been working on the bond intermittently for some period of time," said Bagnall, who was assisted by Miami-based associates Juan Delgado and Luis Vacanti.  "The bridge loan was done at a time when the markets were very robust," Bagnall said. "The liquidity crisis that hit bond markets in July and August [of 2007] made it difficult for any Latin American issuers to access the debt capital markets. Fortunately for Braskem, Brazil received the rating, and that's opened the market for some high-profile Brazilian issuers.  On the day Brazil was upgraded, we met with the clients and began working hard in earnest to be able to sell as the market window opened for Brazilian issuers. I’m not sure how long that window will be open, but I think there's still appetite for Brazilian securities on the bond market."