About

Number of years practice: 26 Law school attended: Harvard Law School Languages spoken: English, Portuguese and Spanish Principal practice areas: Capital Markets, Leveraged Finance and Lending, M&A, Project Development and Finance Admissions: New York

For many years Christopher Mann has led Sullivan & Cromwell’s work as designated underwriters’ counsel on offerings by the United Mexican States (UMS). He has advised on several landmark sovereign offerings and was part of the team which advised the entire group of banks designated as underwriters of UMS’s international securities offerings in its recent transition from the old collective action clause (adopted in 2003) to a new state-of-the-art collective action clause and ranking clause. This new action clause has subsequently been adopted by most other issuers in the wake of the UMS offering. He also advised on the world’s first Euro-denominated “century” bond offering, in 2015, and the country’s first two offerings of 2016, which covered nearly 80% of its funding for the year. Mann’s work leading sovereign capital markets financings by UMS over the years has given him a front row seat on new developments in Mexico’s economy and its legislative framework, including major legislative and constitutional reforms in the oil and gas sector, the growth of renewable energy and the introduction of new investment regimes such as the new energy and infrastructure investment trust (FIBRA-E). This, says Mann, has allowed him to witness the increasing integration of the Mexican and US economies and the growth of foreign direct investment. More broadly, Mann is active throughout a range of Sullivan & Cromwell’s general transactional practices – including capital markets, bank financing, non-recourse project financing, joint ventures, M&A, structured finance and restructurings – and across a number of industry sectors – including infrastructure, energy (including power, oil and gas and renewables), mining, manufacturing, financial institutions, and consumer products. In 2015 for example, he worked on the acquisition by GBM Infraestructura and Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners of the Tres Mesas wind project in Tamaulipas. Mann continues to participate in meetings involving governments, international and regional banks, and sovereigns to discuss market developments. He is a Vice President at Large of the Harvard Law School Association, a director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law and a former chair of the project finance committee of the New York City Bar Association.