London, July 13, 2006 – LAWFUEL – Press Release Service – International law firm, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, has advised Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited on the first high yield bond exchange offer for a Czech issuer. The exchange offer saw SAZKA, the Czech national lottery operator, issue Euro 215 million of 9.00 per cent. Secured Amortising Bonds due 2021, in exchange for Euro 175 million of 7.375 per cent. Amortising Bonds due 2014 with the additional Euro 40 million raised by way of a tap issue. The exchange offer extends SAZKA’s maturity profile and reduces its short term debt servicing costs.
Both the exchanged and newly issued bonds were secured over SAZKA Arena, a newly constructed modern 18,000 seat multi-purpose sports arena in Prague. As security sharing arrangements were not possible under Czech law, as part of the exchange offer SAZKA solicited consents from existing holders to add a call option to redeem non-tendered bonds. As a result, SAZKA was able to successfully redeem all existing bonds not tendered in the exchange offer.
Weil Gotshal fielded a team from their London and Prague offices for the transaction led by London-based Capital Markets partner James Cole, assisted by associates Peter Schwartz and Yomi Ademola. The Prague office was led by Banking & Finance partner Karolína Horáková, assisted by associates Petr Hanzal and Robert Rabas. The trustee for the existing and new bonds was J.P. Morgan Trustee Services Limited, represented by partner Steven Ong and associate Suzie Sarlas of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in London.
James Cole said: “We are pleased to have represented Credit Suisse in such a challenging and rewarding transaction which adds to our list of capital markets firsts in central and eastern Europe including the first secured Czech bond issue, the first Polish and Latvian mortgage backed securitisations and advising on the largest IPO to date in central and eastern Europe. ”
About Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an international law firm of over 1,200 lawyers, including 300 partners. Weil, Gotshal is headquartered in New York, with 20 offices in Austin, Boston, Brussels, Budapest, Dallas, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Miami, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, Providence, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Shanghai, Warsaw, Washington DC and Wilmington.
