Urda Kassis Named a “Dealmaker of the Year”
30 Mar 2009
Cynthia Urda Kassis

Partner Cynthia Urda Kassis (New York-Project Development & Finance) has been named a “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer in the magazine’s April 2009 “Dealmakers” issue.

In its profile, the magazine lauds Urda Kassis for her work on Latin American project finance deals. “Even as credit markets tightened,” the article notes, she helped close two of the largest project finance deals in the region: GNL Quintero and the Panama Canal expansion.

The $1.1 billion financing of the GNL Quintero liquefied natural gas terminal in Chile required Urda Kassis and her team to coordinate with several banks. “Working with the derivatives side and lending side of each of the banks meant that Shearman had, in essence, 18 clients on one deal,” the article explains.

For her “second blockbuster of the year,” the Panama Canal financing, the magazine reports that Urda Kassis and partner Manuel Orillac (Paris-Capital Markets/M&A) “coheaded the Shearman team that negotiated $2.3 billion in unsecured financing from a group of five export credit agencies and multilateral development lenders as the bank market was collapsing.”

Last year, partner Stephen Besen (New York-M&A) was named a Dealmaker of the Year.