Latham Advises on Two Deals of the Year at Environmental Finance’s Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Awards 2020

Latham & Watkins was honored at the Environmental Finance Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Awards 2020 for the firm’s work on two innovative transactions, including:

• Social Bond of the Year (Sovereign) and Innovative Bond Structure (Social): Latham advised the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as guarantor, in a US$400 million offering of social bonds issued by the Republic of Ecuador, the first sovereign in the world to conduct a financing of this kind. The offering, whose proceeds will help provide housing to medium- and low-income families by funding Ecuador’s housing program, complied with the Social Bond Principles of the International Capital Markets Association.
• Innovative Bond Structure (Sustainability Bond): Latham represented the Joint Bookrunners in connection with the launch by Enel of a sustainability-linked bond for institutional investors on the US and international markets totalling US$1.5 billion. The transaction represents the first bond issuance with a potential interest rate adjustment linked to the issuer’s achievement of a sustainability objective (increasing the proportion of Enel’s power generation capacity represented by renewables).

These transactions reflect Latham’s position as a top legal advisor to issuers, underwriters, and guarantors on green, social, and sustainability bonds, utilizing the deep knowledge and experience of the firm’s leading capital markets and sustainable finance practices.

Environmental Finance’s annual award program honors the organizations that innovate and contribute to the successful development of the sustainable finance market. An independent panel of sustainable finance investors selected this year’s winners, which included a diverse range of companies, financial institutions, and government entities from around the world. Latham was honored as Law Firm of the Year in the prior year’s awards.