Latham & Watkins Advises on Waymo’s US$5 Billion Debt Financing to Accelerate Business Expansion

Waymo has announced it has closed a US$5 billion term loan, marking the company’s first debt financing and an important step in its evolution into a scaling commercial enterprise. Blackstone, PIMCO, and Sixth Street participated as lead syndicated lenders, with Capital Group, Loomis Sayles, T. Rowe Price, Apollo, Blue Owl, Diameter Capital Partners, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity Management & Research Company, HPS Investment Partners, and Oaktree as additional lenders. Goldman Sachs served as the sole lead bookrunner.

Latham & Watkins LLP represented the private capital funds and sole lead arranger in the transaction with a Banking & Private Credit team led by partners Alfred Xue, Global Vice Chair of the firm’s Banking & Private Credit Practice, Stelios Saffos, Global Chair of Latham’s Capital Markets and Public Company Representation practices and Global Chair of the Hybrid Capital Practice, Pete Sluka, Global Co-Chair of the Hybrid Capital Practice, Dan Seale, Global Chair of the firm’s Banking & Private Credit Practice, Graeme Smyth, Jason Bosworth, Global Vice Chair of the firm’s Banking & Private Credit Practice, Benjamin Stern, Kelly Egers, Erika Weinberg, Jesse Sheff, Josh Holt, Michael Waldman, Clever Gallegos, and Marcela Ruenes, and counsel Seung-Ju Paik and Juan Olivares, with associates Julio Martinez Rivas, Daniel Ovadia, Amishi Magdani, Victoria Basedow, Kai Yeo, Ed Prevost, Alex Natarajan, and Jason Wang with assistance from Casey Pepa. Advice was also provided on Uniform Commercial Code matters by partner Brian Rock and counsel Linda Kim, with associate Sean Travers; on tax matters by partner Bora Bozkurt, with associate Joyce Shin; on intellectual property matters by partner Morgan Brubaker and counsel Carrie Girgenti, with associate Jaclyn Malmed; on sanctions matters by partner Erin Brown Jones and counsel Aaron Amundson; on environmental matters by counsel David Langer, with associate Bruce Johnson; and on executive compensation, employment, and benefits matters by partner Laura Waller and counsel Rifka Singer.