Linklaters Secures Third Deal of the Year Award to Date for Unprecedented Sustainability-Linked Bond Offering for the Republic of Chile

Latin Lawyer Awards Linklaters with Corporate Finance: ESG Deal of the Year Award

Linklaters’ Latin America group was awarded Latin Lawyer’s Corporate Finance: ESG Deal of the Year Award for the firm’s work advising the Republic of Chile on an offering of US$2 billion 4.340% notes due 2042 that made the Republic the first sovereign worldwide to issue a sustainability-linked bond. This is the third industry award that Linklaters has received for this deal to date, having previously been recognized with LatinFinance’s Sovereign ESG Deal of the Year Award and Bonds & Loans’ Sovereign Bond Deal of the Year Award.

The notes were issued pursuant to the Republic of Chile’s Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework, which the Republic of Chile adopted in February 2022 and sets out goals with respect to absolute greenhouse gas emissions and the share of non-conventional renewable energy generation in the Republic of Chile’s national electric system. 

The offering of the notes attracted more than 230 investors from Europe, Asia and the Americas with the order book reaching over US$8 billion. The demand allowed Chile to significantly tighten the initial price target and obtain a new issuance premium that the Republic of Chile’s Ministry of Finance described as “unprecedented” in the current market conditions.

The Linklaters team was led by partner Conrado Tenaglia and counsel Alejandro Gordano, alongside partner Gabriel Grossman (Tax), associate Matthew Russo (Tax), law clerk María Vaz Ferreira and foreign attorneys Monica Perez-Banuet Farell, Manuel Eyzaguirre and Loreto Joannon.

Linklaters has been involved in a number of “first” sustainability-linked bonds by issuers in Latin America, including the first emerging-market sustainability-linked bond issued in 2020 by Suzano, a leading Brazilian pulp and paper producer, and the first sustainability-linked bond issued in Peru by SMI, a leader in rigid plastic packaging solutions in Latin America.