Opportunities in the structured finance practice were among the motivators for Hogan Lovells to open an office in Rio de Janeiro, according to Emil Arca, a partner at the firm.
Hogan Lovell recently announced that it was opening an office in this port city, its first in Brazil.
“Opening on office in Rio is part of our broader interest in the intersection of energy, finance and Brazil,” said Arca. “The offshore oil business in Brazil will probably be the most capital intensive sector in Latin America over the next five years.” He added that the move there was not narrowly structured finance-driven but that he believes that structured finance will be an important part of the mix in meeting those capital requirements.
Prior to that time, such assets had exclusively been financed in the bank market through loans. “Given its size, the market will need capital from diversified sources of equity and debt investors and we expect to be active with all of them, including structured finance.” Several securitizations backed by drill-rig ships have been executed over the last couple of years. Hogan Lovells worked on structuring the first such transaction in 2010, representing the underwriters on an offering by the Schahin Group backed by the ship the S.C.Lancer and the revenues from its contracts with Petrobras.
