Christophe Wauters’ practice focuses primarily on financing, debt restructuring and bank regulation.

He has experience across a broad range of debt financing products, advising both borrowers and lenders on bank lending, project finance and leveraged finance transactions, high-yield bonds, and structured debt. Christophe also worked on major bail-outs and restructurings of European financial institutions.

Christophe joined the firm in 2007, became a senior attorney in 2014, and became counsel in 2022. Prior to Cleary, he worked in the Brussels and London offices of an international law firm.

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Notable Experiences

  • Akuo Energy on the financing of wind farm projects in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

  • BNP Paribas in its €14.5 billion acquisition of Fortis Bank and the subsequent reorganization of its banking and asset management subsidiaries.

  • Dexia in its restructuring and dismantling plan, including the €85 billion sovereign funding guarantee granted by the States of Belgium, France and Luxembourg.

  • Goodyear on various bank lending, structured financing and debt capital market transactions.

  • Truvo Group, a European directories company, on successive cross-border restructurings and eventual pre-packed sale through bankruptcy proceedings.

  • Several Belgian financial institutions on the implementation of EU regulatory reforms.

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Publications

Co-author, “Rating African Sovereigns: A Way Forward,” November 2023.

Co-author, “The Critical Raw Materials Act,” July 2023.

Co-author, “European Commission Proposes Definition of Renewable Hydrogen in the EU,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2023.

Co-author, “The EU Commission’s Proposal on Pre-Pack Sales and Other Insolvency Matters,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, February 2023.

Co-author, “CRR Quick Fix to Facilitate Lending in Response to COVID-19 Adopted,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, July 2020.

Co-author, “Summary of EU and UK Monetary Stimulus, Liquidity Support and Prudential Measures in Response to COVID-19,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, June 2020.

Co-author, “Belgium’s Response to Mitigate the Effects of COVID-19,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, March 2020.

Contributing Author, A Practitioner’s Guide to Syndicated Lending, 2nd Edition.

Laurent Ruzette and Christophe Wauters, “Le renflouement interne comme instrument de résolution,” in Les Dossiers du Journal des tribunaux – La loi bancaire; questions particulières / De bankenwet: bijzondere vraggstukken, 2015.

Jay Moodrall and Christophe Wauters, “Expanding EU Role in European Financial Regulation,” in Financial Fraud Law Report, 2009.