Latham & Watkins Advises Latin American Development Bank CAF in Its Largest-Ever Bond Financing

Latham & Watkins advised Latin American development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) in its global offering of US$1.5 billion in three-year notes, the largest bond financing in CAF’s history and its first in 2023. The notes, which were listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market, achieved a coupon of 4.75%, with CAF taking advantage of investor interest in its recent ratings upgrade and marketing the notes among fund managers, central banks, and institutions in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and Asia.

CAF is a multilateral financial institution that seeks to promote economic development within Latin America and the Caribbean and has been instrumental in financing its shareholder countries’ recovery efforts since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its principal and associated shareholders include 18 sovereign nations across Latin America and the Caribbean, together with Spain and Portugal.

Since 2020, the firm has counseled CAF in more than 40 bond offerings exceeding US$7.5 billion in proceeds, including syndicated offerings and private placements under CAF’s US$30 billion English law-governed Euro medium-term note program. The firm’s Financial Institutions Practice regularly advises supranational financial institutions in their financing needs around the world, including recent registered offerings by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea.

Latham & Watkins LLP advised CAF in the transaction with a deal team led by partners Roderick Branch, Paul Dudek, and John Slater, with assistance from partner Basil Al-Jafari on London Stock Exchange listing matters and from associates Angel Marcial and Carolina Bernal.