Global law firm White & Case LLP has won the Restructuring and Unlocking Capital (formerly named Unlocking Finance) categories of the "Practice of law" section in this year's Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe report. This marks the second consecutive year the Firm has won in both categories.
Practice of law
The Restructuring win recognizes our work advising the Republic of El Salvador on the world's largest debt-for-nature conversion for river conservation and the world's largest debt-for-nature conversion in terms of funding commitments for conservation. The conversion comprises El Salvador's issuance of US$1 billion 20-year impact notes to a special purpose vehicle, and the concurrent tender offer of a portion of its outstanding notes using the proceeds of the new impact notes. As a result, El Salvador was able to refinance more than US$1 billion of its outstanding notes and generate an expected US$352 million in lifetime savings through a combination of immediate notional debt savings and material reductions in debt service costs.
The Unlocking Capital win is for our work advising the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on the restructuring of approximately US$20.5 billion of Ukraine's international bonds and the sovereign-guaranteed debt obligations of the State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure (Ukravtodor). We also advised on the G7's €45 billion "extraordinary revenue acceleration" loans, which are backed by Russian assets frozen in EU clearing systems and repaid using the accumulated interest on these assets.
