New York – August 16, 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Debevoise & Plimpton LLP represented Financial Security Assurance Inc. (“FSA”) in connection with its financial guarantee of a project bond financing for the Chicago Skyway toll bridge system.
The financing, which closed today, involved an issuance by Skyway Concession Company LLC (the “Issuer”), a project company jointly owned by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. and Macquarie Infrastructure Group, of $1.4 billion of Senior Secured Floating Rate Bonds insured by FSA and underwritten by Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Macquarie Securities (USA) Inc. This innovative financing also included various interest rate hedging transactions in which FSA insured the Issuer’s obligations to Citibank, N.A. and Goldman Sachs Capital Markets, L.P., as swap counterparties.
This issuance refinanced in its entirety the bridge financing indebtedness incurred by the Issuer following the privatization of the Chicago Skyway toll bridge system earlier this year.
FSA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd., a member of the Dexia Group. FSA guarantees principal and interest on municipal and public infrastructure bonds and asset-backed securities issued in markets around the world. Its Triple-A financial guaranty insurance allows issuers to lower their funding costs and provides bondholders with the highest quality investments.
The Debevoise team was led by partners Ivan E. Mattei and Robert J. Gibbons, and included counsel A. David Reynolds, corporate associates Elena Maria Millerman, Yoeli Barag and Michael P. McGuigan, tax partner Burt Rosen and tax associate Jennifer F. Whetsell, derivatives counsel Gary E. Murphy, real estate partner Matthew T. Golden and real estate associate Nicole Levin-Messard, and foreign intern Armando Rivera.
