Cleary Gottlieb represented the Mexican Ministry of Communications and Transportation and Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares, the agencies of the Mexican Government in charge of overseeing the management, operations and development of Mexico’s airports, in the second stage of financing for the development and construction of the new Mexico City international airport. The airport is expected to become the largest in Latin America and serve as a regional hub.
Reported as the largest syndicated revolving bank facility in the history of Latin America, the $3 billion credit facility consists of a secured revolving loan granted by a consortium of Mexican and U.S. banks. The credit is backed by a collateral structure similar to that for the first stage of the financing: based on a securitization of passenger charges collected and to be collected by the Mexican government from airlines operating at the existing airport and, as soon as it commences operations, the new airport. The revolving nature of the facility affords the government immediate access to funds necessary for the development and construction of the new airport, but provides flexibility for refinancings with different creditor groups to take advantage of both longer-term maturities and market conditions.
The Cleary Gottlieb team, based out of the firm’s New York and Washington, D.C., offices, also represented the Mexican government in the first stage of the airport financing that closed in October 2014.