The Republic of Panama's financing of the construction of the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal, the country's most important infrastructure project currently under construction, on which Arnold & Porter advised the Republic and its Ministry of Economy and Finance, won "Deal of the Year" in the Project Finance: Infrastructure category at the 2025 Latin Lawyer Awards. The annual awards ceremony, held on May 8, 2025, celebrated the most significant deals of the year across Latin America.
The financing consisted of both a short-term and a permanent financing transaction. The short-term financing involved the issuance of approximately $120 million of short-term notes listed on the Official List of the International Stock Exchange Group Limited, and the permanent financing involved the issuance of approximately $1.5 billion of Series 2024-2 senior secured notes due 2032 listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The short-term and permanent financing both involved a structured financing based on the sale and subsequent securitization of payment obligations issued by Panama to the bridge construction consortium, which sold the obligations to a UK trust which, in turn, issued zero coupon notes falling due annually from April 2027 to 2032.
The Arnold & Porter team was led by partners Whitney Debevoise and Gregory Harrington. The team also included partners Simon Firth and Jeremy Willcocks, senior associates Mateo Morris and Trevor Schmitt, and associate Kardia Leung.