About

Shafiq Perry is vice president and senior legal counsel at HSBC in New York, where he is frequently involved in analysing cross-border loans to Latin America-based corporates and helping to underwrite securities for the bank’s larger institutional clients in the region. Perry works closely with HSBC’s lending arm in the US on acquisition finance transactions originating out of New York, often in conjunction with HSBC lawyers based locally in the Latin America offices. Perry supports the regional team that underwrites loans by advising on and managing the risks associated with them. He is also frequently involved in matters involving HSBC’s UK headquarters that touch upon New York law or that involve a US investor base and raise questions relating to syndication, documentation, market practices and risks. Within his immediate team, he is part of a group of four lawyers that cover a wide range of businesses, including project finance, acquisition finance, lending, debt and equity capital markets and M&A advisory work. Being based in such an international team, says Perry, is a good opportunity to develop as a lawyer. ‘I have to deal with a range of matters in Latin America that really run the gamut of investment banking products and services. It makes my practice much more general and gives me exposure to a wide variety of important work.’ As a result of this breadth of work, Perry has been involved in a number of extremely important transactions, including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s $103bn purchase of SAB Miller in 2016. Another example came in Autumn 2016, when he advised HSBC in connection with Banco de Bogotá’s US-denominated subordinated notes offering, a matter Perry describes as ‘somewhat like a switch tender, but involving a novel loan-to-bond exchange settlement structure, the first of its kind in Latin America. My role was ultimately one of ensuring that the relevant stakeholders were comfortable with the risks and aware of what issues might arise.’ Before joining HSBC Perry worked as an associate in the finance group of Paul Hastings’ New York office.