Business today is borderless, and Andrews Kurth has played a key role in making it so. For decades our lawyers have played key roles in building international energy infrastructure, creating the global asset securitization market and helping to resolve international trade disputes. The firm’s Beijing office provides logistic and personnel support for the firm’s work for China-based clients and other clients with business in China. Our London office is located in the center of international finance, and we have important practices in the key U.S. corporate centers of New York and Los Angeles. Our Texas offices have been the foundation for our substantial representation throughout Latin America, and having a solid presence in Washington, DC enables us to help clients with foreign regulation and trade and worldwide intellectual property enforcement.

Financing the global energy industry

Andrews Kurth is a recognized global leader at assisting clients around the world successfully develop, finance, restructure, purchase and sell energy and other infrastructure projects. We have facilitated projects valued at billions of dollars, located throughout the Western Hemisphere (including Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Trinidad/Tobago, and globally from Indonesia to Pakistan to Turkey).

Our annual project and structured energy financings have given us a Top 10 Power Project Finance ranking by American Lawyer magazine and recognition by Petroleum Economist magazine as a world leader in energy finance, and our transactions have earned us recognizable accolades such as:

• Project Finance Magazine awards Andrews Kurth's energy practice with the "North American Oil & Gas Deal of the Year." The firm serves as legal counsel for Cheniere Energy in the largest ever LNG financing in connection with the Sabine Pass project.
• Euromoney Institutional Investor (International Financial Law Review) places Andrews Kurth 9th among law firms for the 1st Quarter (2004), Project Finance Rankings. Three US firms made the top 10 and the US trio have a combined market share of 15.8%. Andrews Kurth climbed more than 40 places to be named in the top 10.
• “2002 Latin American Petrochemical Deal of the Year,” for a $237 million term loan to finance a 5,000 tonnes per day methanol production facility in Trinidad and Tobago

Below are just a few of the other international projects we have worked on:

• The $220 million in financing for the first oil pipeline between Argentina and Chile
• The construction of a gas pipeline connecting a natural gas field off the coast of Ecuador with a gas-fired electrical generation plant in that country
• The financing and construction of a pipeline from the giant Cusiana oil field to the Colombian port of Coveñas
• The $2 billion in project financings for two expansion projects at a liquefied natural gas plant in Indonesia
• The $200 million in project financing to help a major independent oil company develop reserves in the U.K. Sector of the North Sea.
• Bridge Financing for fertilizer plant in Argentina
• Stock sale of power plant in Mexico

Our lawyers have also been successful in assisting formerly state-owned energy companies privatize and secure public financing:

• We helped transform Argentina’s former state-owned energy concern into YPF Sociedad Anónima, one of the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas companies. Andrews Kurth served as counsel to YPF in the then largest-ever international IPO of a single company’s shares--$3.05 billion for 45% of YPF.
• Representation of bidder in connection with privatization of Nicaragua’s electricity assets
• We were selected by The World Bank to serve as chief international counsel for the privatization of Gas del Estado, the Argentine state-owned natural gas transportation and distribution monopoly. Our lawyers divided the system into ten independent companies, which were sold for $2 billion in international bidding.
• The Peruvian government chose Andrews Kurth as international legal counsel in connection with the privatization of PETROPERU, S.A., the state-owned oil and gas company.

Building the worldwide securitization market

Our securitization lawyers have been at the forefront of international transactions, including many “firsts” in a number of Latin American countries:

• We represented YPF in three transactions securitizing approximately $900 million of its oil export receivables, the first of which represented the initial use of Argentina’s newly passed securitization legislation.
• We represented Credit Suisse First Boston in a $100 million securitization of residential mortgage loans owned by Banco Hipotecario Nacional, the national mortgage bank of Argentina, which was Argentina’s first residential mortgage securitization.
• We helped the Chilean government implement its first securitization law and develop the necessary regulatory framework. Andrews Kurth acted as foreign advisor to the first and second securitizers of residential mortgage loans under the law.
• We represented a Chicago investment banking firm in the first rated commercial loan securitization that relied on Mexican credit, a private placement of bonds secured by a commercial office lease.

We have also advised the financing arm of a major Japanese auto manufacturer on securitization transactions, and are helping the International Finance Corporation develop legislation to create a mortgage-backed securities market in Russia and the Ukraine.

Resolving international disputes

With respect to trade disputes, lawyers in our Washington, DC office have represented numerous foreign industry clients in Section 337 International Trade Commission proceedings involving antidumping, infringement and tariff-related matters. We have also advised on Section 301 provisions of the U.S. Trade Act, and on the World Trade Organization's procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights. Among the trade issues we have worked on are

• Defending an international company against allegations of patent infringement of laminated flooring products in a Section 337 proceeding
• Representing numerous foreign importers from Asia and elsewhere in Section 337 proceedings involving steel, industrial chemicals and computer equipment
• Advising a Norwegian government organization on Section 301 enforcement practices involving import licensing restrictions, labeling and certification requirements, subsidies and bidding procurement practices
• Counseling Chilean organizations concerning free trade and fast track trade agreements
• Advising various clients about dispute resolution under the WTOs agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Andrews Kurth lawyers are also representing foreign clients in alternative dispute resolution, ranging from business disputes, intellectual property, and indemnity claims under purchase and sale agreements.

Taking a multinational perspective

At some large law firms, “international practice” means helping U.S. companies cope with business rules and requirements in other countries. Andrews Kurth, by contrast, has a truly multinational perspective that frequently involves creating new opportunities for foreign clients in their home or other countries. Our skill at international finance and regulatory innovation has led to a remarkable succession of transactional and statutory “firsts.” Our straight talk works all over the world.