Suzana Sava-Montanari is a partner in the Paris and London offices of Latham and Watkins. Ms. Sava-Montanari is a member of the firm’s Financial Institutions Industry Group and Structured Finance and Derivatives Practices.
Ms. Sava-Montanari regularly advises investors on a wide variety of structured credit, fund-linked or tax driven structures, including securitizations, capital relief trades, cash and synthetic CLOs, public and private debt, hybrid capital market issues, and OTC derivatives. She has also advised banks, sovereigns, and corporates in relation to structuring and implementing their general or finance-linked hedging strategies (FX, interest rate and commodity) or using equity derivatives in strategic transactions.
Ms. Sava-Montanari’s regulatory practice includes advising EU and non-EU financial institutions, asset managers, and corporates with their regulatory compliance requirements under EMIR, including in connection with clearing, margining, and reporting, as well as in their dialogue with the European rule- making bodies.
As part of her pro-bono work, Ms. Sava- Montanari assisted through the Financial Services Volunteer Corps in Washington, D.C., the Albanian Financial Services Authority in preparing its new Investment Funds Law.
She was also one of the leaders of Latham & Watkins’ Women Enriching Business network.
Recognitions
Recognized as a Rising Star. According to clients, “Suzana Sava-Montanari is very competent, experienced, smart and pleasant to work with.” The Legal 500 EMEA 2020
Recognized in the Accessing New Markets and Capital category. FT Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards 2019
Ranked in Tier 1 in The Legal 500 EMEA 2016 in Derivatives, Structured Finance and Securitization.
Ms. Sava-Montanari’s recent experience includes advising:
- US investment fund on the purchase of a €150 million portfolio of French non-performing loans (NPLs)
- UK insurer on a synthetic risk transfer transaction in respect of a €1.250 billion portfolio of capital call facilities originated by a French bank
- UK investment fund on a synthetic risk transfer transaction in respect of a CHF 5 billion portfolio of Swiss mortgage loans
- US investment fund on a synthetic risk transfer transaction in respect of a €1.6 billion portfolio of international project finance loans (including renewables), which was structured with sustainable/ESG-linked features
- US investment fund on the purchase of a €600 million portfolio of French non-performing loans (NPLs)
- French Asset Manager on a €100 million auction-settled credit-linked note issued by a French bank and linked to a linear basket of 5 reference entities
- US investment fund on two synthetic risk transfer transactions on portfolios of French leasing receivables and SME borrowers
- NewMarket Capital in relation to several synthetic securitizations with EU and UK banks
- Mariner Investment Group on the first French law synthetic securitization for regulatory capital relief in respect of a banks’ project and specialty finance portfolio, the first synthetic securitization by a multilateral development bank with AfDB, and several synthetic securitizations of a project finance portfolios with Spanish, French, and other banks
- Cairn Capital Ltd on various synthetic securitizations of leading banks’ loan portfolios
- An asset manager in relation to an investment in US$382 million Portfolio Credit Linked Notes issued by special purpose vehicle in connection with a capital relief transaction for Deutsche Bank in respect of a portfolio of US$4.5 billion US corporate loans
- Several UK and US asset managers on their investments in several synthetic securitizations with Canadian, US, UK, Austrian, Italian, Spanish, and Asian banks
- US manager on a bilateral guarantee providing credit protection to an Asian bank on a portfolio of project finance and infrastructure loans
- UK and US asset manager on their investment in a synthetic securitization as anchor investor with a UK bank on their corporate portfolio
- UK and US asset manager on their investments in synthetic securitizations and NPL portfolio sales in France