Slaughter and May advised CEMEX - refinancing and repayment of approximately US$1.94 billion

Slaughter and May advised CEMEX on the refinancing and repayment of the total amount outstanding of approximately US$1.94 billion under its facilities agreement of September 2012 (the 2012 Financing Agreement) with new funds from seventeen financial institutions.

The refinancing banks provided funds via additional tranches of CEMEX's September 2014 facilities agreement (the 2014 Facilities Agreement), with the new tranches being implemented by an amended accordion structure. The transaction was initially structured to be an exchange and discharge but, given strong consent levels and the provision of sufficient monies to repay the 2012 Financing Agreement, it was restructured to be achieved as a drawdown and prepayment. At the same time certain amendments were made to the 2014 Facilities Agreement and the intercreditor arrangements were revised to take into account the repayment of the 2012 Financing Agreement.

The transaction allowed CEMEX to increase the average life of its syndicated bank debt to approximately four years, leaving CEMEX with no significant debt maturities in 2016 and 2017 other than approximately US$352 million of Convertible Subordinated Notes due March 2016 and approximately US$373 million corresponding to the first amortisation under the 2014 Facilities Agreement.

Slaughter and May worked as a team with CEMEX’s in-house counsel in both Mexico and Spain. As with previous transactions in 2009, 2012 and 2014, law firms advising CEMEX in other jurisdictions included Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (New York and France), GHR Rechtsanwälte AG (Switzerland), Matheson (Ireland) and Warendorf (the Netherlands).