Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, represented Santander, Credit Suisse and Evercore as initial purchasers in connection with Fibra Uno’s US$1.75 billion follow-on equity offering, which is the largest equity offering in Latin America this year. This oversubscribed offering marks the third equity offering by Fibra Uno, which has now issued almost US$3 billion in equity in less than two years. The issued stock was offered publicly in Mexico on the Mexican Stock Exchange and internationally pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S.
Paul Hastings attorneys also represented the initial purchasers in Fibra Uno’s historic IPO in 2011 and its initial follow-on offering in 2012. After its IPO, Fibra Uno became the very first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in Latin America and the first Mexican REIT to be utilized in the wake of a comprehensive legal overhaul in Mexico that created the “FIBRA”, a new Mexican investment vehicle, which bears many similarities to the U.S. REIT. The FIBRA provides a transparent and liquid vehicle to allow for individual investors, as opposed to a limited number of families, to own and trade in real estate in Mexico.
The introduction of the FIBRA asset class has transformed the Mexican real estate market as many other Mexican real estate companies are seeking to follow the Fibra Uno precedent and repackage their real estate holdings into newly-created FIBRAs in order to capitalize on the investor demand for FIBRA securities. Paul Hastings attorneys, using their strong real estate and Latin American franchises, are already working on several other FIBRA transactions and were counsel to the initial purchasers in the extremely successful IPO of Fibra Hotel, the first and only lodging REIT in Latin America to date, which closed in December 2012.
In response to the surge in investor demand for Fibra Uno’s stock, which has appreciated 105% since its IPO less than two years ago, the current offering was the first Mexican offering ever to feature a “hot deal option” whereby the underwriters could upsize the offering size by 20% at the time of pricing. Because the deal was over two times oversubscribed at the time of pricing, the underwriters elected to exercise their hot deal option and increase the offering size to its current amount of approximately US$1.75 billion.
Latin America practice partners Mike Fitzgerald and Arturo Carrillo led the Paul Hastings team, which also included associates Chad MacDonald and Emily Winston and foreign associate Pablo Garza Sada.
