White & Case Advises Deutsche Bank in a Record "First" Microfinance Fund

New York, London, August 2, 2007 ... White & Case recently assisted Deutsche Bank in what is believed to be the first subordinated debt fund to provide US dollar and Euro denominated subordinated loans to microfinance institutions.

"Microfinance lending is crucial to alleviating poverty and empowering those that are economically disadvantaged," says partner Sylvia Chin who recently participated in a panel on "Microfinance: Local to Global Efforts in Empowering the Economic Participation of Women," organized by UNIFEM and the New York Women's Bar Association. "The creativity and geographic diversity of this fund is a true reflection of the type of work White & Case does best," says partner Sylvia Chin.

The loans, which totaled approximately $80 million, were provided to 21 microfinance institutions in 15 jurisdictions as geographically diverse as Azerbaijan, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Nigeria and the Philippines. The purpose of the loans is to assist the microfinance institutions in strengthening their equity capital as they convert into regulated financial institutions in their respective jurisdictions. In addition to advising Deutsche Bank in connection with the underlying loans, the Firm also provided New York and English law opinions to the rating agency rating the fund.

The fund was primarily structured by Deutsche Bank in Germany and will be formally announced on September 19, 2007.

Partner Sylvia Chin was the lead counsel on the deal, along with partner Abe Zylberberg and associates Irena Tumova and Eunice Rho in New York; and partner Doug Peel and associates Christopher Langdon and Michael Brennan in London.

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