
Benjamin S.D. Kent
Special CounselBenjamin S.D. Kent
Special CounselBenjamin Kent is a special counsel in Sullivan & Cromwell’s General Practice Group. He has been based in New York since 2014, having previously worked in the Firm’s Frankfurt and London offices.
Mr. Kent advises on a wide range of matters for both U.S. and non-U.S. clients in a number of industries. Mr. Kent’s practice is focused on debt and equity financing transactions, including leveraged, project and acquisition financings, as well as private credit transactions, and includes M&A and joint venture work, particularly in the context of infrastructure transactions.
Mr. Kent’s experience includes numerous cross-border and multi-jurisdictional financing, capital markets and M&A transactions in which he has represented a variety of borrowers, lenders, sponsors, underwriters, buyers and sellers.
SELECTED REPRESENTATIONS
Leveraged, Project and Acquisition Financing- Compañía Minera Antamina in a $250 million unsecured bilateral credit facility
- Kinross Gold Corporation in its arrangement of the $300 million project financing for its Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania
- Bayer AG in the financing aspects of the $7.6 billion disposition of its animal health business to Elanco
- Minera Centinela and Minera Antucoya in refinancings of existing project finance debt in principal amounts of $500 million and $330 million, respectively
- Fiserv, Inc. in the $20 billion financing related to its acquisition of First Data Corporation and its subsequent offering of $2 billion of unsecured notes as well as other financing activities
- Vector Group Ltd. in a number of financing transactions, including its offering of $230 million of unsecured notes, its offering of $850 million of senior secured notes and two million shares of common stock and the extension of its subsidiary’s $60 million revolving credit facility
- CONMED Corporation in the financing for its $365 million acquisition of Buffalo Filter LLC
- Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. in its arrangement of a $310 million acquisition financing loan
- Affiliates of Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC in their $3.1 billion financing for a mezzanine debt fund
- Marcobre S.A.C. in the $900 million project financing for the development of its Mina Justa copper project (Project Finance International 2018 Mining Deal of the Year)
- Bayer AG in the financing aspects of its $60 billion acquisition of Monsanto Company and its offer to exchange up to $6.9 billion of debt issued by Monsanto Company for new debt issued by Bayer AG
- Skyway Concession Company LLC in various refinancings of part of the indebtedness incurred to finance its acquisition
- CPPIB Credit Investments, Inc. and Guggenheim Partners in connection with the arrangement of a $350 million unsecured U.S. loan
- Subsidiaries of Ascent Resources, LLC in their $1.5 billion high yield bond offering
- Praxair Inc. in the financing aspects of its merger with Linde AG
- A major Asian investment firm in a number of investments in U.S. debt and preferred equity instruments
- A Chilean mining project with Japanese and European joint venture partners with respect to various strategic financing matters
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, OMERS Infrastructure Management and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in the financing of their $2.8 billion acquisition of the Chicago Skyway toll road from Cintra and Macquarie
- SoftBank Group Corp. in connection with the $20 billion monetization of a portion of its T-Mobile US, Inc. stake
- The Bank Policy Institute in connection with the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program
- The U.S. Treasury Department in the implementation of loan and payroll support programs under the CARES Act for air cargo carriers and contractors related to the COVID-19 pandemic
- H/2 Capital Partners in connection with a number of lender-side mandates
- Empresas CMPC S.A. in its $100 million “Samurai” green loan, the first such transaction by a Chilean issuer in the international markets
- Hudbay Minerals Inc. in connection with a potential joint venture transaction
- Minera Los Pelambres in its $1.3 billion unsecured commercial bank and export credit agency term loans related to the expansion of the Los Pelambres project, which includes construction of a desalination plant; the $875 million commercial bank tranche received a Green Evaluation from S&P Global Ratings, making Los Pelambres the first mining company in the world to receive this evaluation from S&P
- Corporación Andina de Fomento in connection with its involvement in the Green Climate Fund
- Merck KGaA in connection with various financing matters relating to its $6.5 billion acquisition of Versum Materials, Inc.
- Minsur S.A. in its $182 million sale of a 40% stake in Cumbres Andinas S.A.C. to Alxar Internacional SpA
- Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a potential acquisition of a U.S. pharmaceutical company
- Antofagasta plc/Minera Los Pelambres in the transfer of a 40% stake in the Alto Maipo hydroelectric project to AES Gener SA
- Cheniere Energy Inc. in its $750 million revolving credit facility relating to the equity commitments to its Sabine Pass project
- Pocahontas Parkway and Macquarie in the sale by Macquarie, CPPIB and Centerbridge Partners of 100% of the equity in Pocahontas to Globalvia
- Softbank Group Corp. in its issuance of $5.5 billion of mandatory exchangeable trust securities
- Cementos Argos S.A. in its acquisition of certain U.S. cement assets and the related financing
- PointState Capital LP in connection with its investment in Pampa Energia
- Terraform Power, Inc. and Terraform Global, Inc. in certain governance aspects of the SunEdison restructuring
- JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings Inc. in the sale of its Highbridge Capital Management asset management business and associated financing
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, OMERS Infrastructure Management and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in their $2.8 billion acquisition of the Chicago Skyway toll road from Cintra and Macquarie
- Macquarie CAF Management LLC in its acquisition of a 50% stake in the Pocahontas Parkway toll road