Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Gunvor Group on US$500m debut bond issue

International law firm Clifford Chance has advised Gunvor Group, the global energy commodities trading house, on its debut bond issue of US$500,000,000 5.875 per cent. Notes due 2018.

The bond issue forms a key part of Gunvor’s strategy to grow and diversify its sources of funding to support new investments and existing operations, and is guaranteed by Gunvor Group subsidiaries based in Cyprus, the Bahamas, the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland.

Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs International, Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking and ING acted as joint lead managers and were advised by Latham & Watkins.

Simon Sinclair, one of the capital markets partners working on the transaction, said:

"We were delighted to be able to work with the Gunvor Group on this landmark bond issue and to use our high yield expertise and our sector knowledge to help support the transaction. We are seeing an increasing number of first time issuers looking to issue debut bonds and we believe the capital markets will continue to provide an increasingly important funding option for corporates."

Gunvor Group was advised by Clifford Chance capital markets partners Simon Sinclair (lead partner), Chris Walton and Michael Dakin; senior associate Reena Parmar; and US counsel Nikolai Mikhailov.