Denise Grant is a partner in the Project Development & Finance practice. She advises financial institutions, including commercial banks and DFIs, as well as multinational corporations, in their secured and unsecured, domestic and cross-border, private financing activities, with a particular focus on Latin America.

Denise’s clients include Bank of America, Banco de Chile, BBVA, Citigroup, CA-CIB, IFC and SMBC, as well as AES Gener, American Axle, E.CL, Transelec, Viacom, and the lenders to Latin America oil and gas giants Pemex and Petrobras.

Denise has been lauded three times as one of the “Most Influential Black Lawyers” by Savoy Magazine, and has also been named one of six Tier 1 lawyers in Latin America-wide Banking & Finance by Chambers & Partners and one of 12 “Leading Lawyers” in Banking & Finance by Legal 500 Latin America.

A longstanding champion of diversity and inclusion, Denise is chair and founder of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. Under her leadership, the initiative has become part of the DNA of the firm, which has been recognized as “Top Firm for Diversity” by The American Lawyer and one of the “Best Law Firms for Minority Attorneys and for Minority Equity Partners” by Law360.

As co-chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, Denise leads the Firm’s diversity and inclusion mission through all aspects of the firm’s administration, operations and through client relationships.

Banking & Finance

• Barclays Bank PLC as administrative agent in connection with a $500 million senior unsecured credit agreement entered into by and among PMI as borrower, Pemex as a guarantor and certain financial institutions thereunder as lenders. The credit facility, jointly with a $1.1 billion equity contribution from Pemex, will be utilized by PMI for the payment to Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) of the purchase price for the acquisition of 50% of the interest in Deer Park Refining, L.P. (Deer Park), the refinancing of Deer Park’s existing indebtedness and the purchase of certain oil & gas inventory from Shell
• Albaugh as borrower and its Mexican, Brazilian, Dutch, Brazilian, Cayman Islands and Canadian subsidiaries as guarantors under a $750 million secured term loan facility and revolver
• Deutsche Bank, as lender on a €207 million credit facility for The Commonwealth of The Bahamas
• Volcan as borrower, and Compañía Minera, Óxidos de Pasco and Empresa Administradora Cerro, as guarantors, in connection with a $400 million four-year senior unsecured credit facility provided to Volcan to be used for the refinancing of its outstanding 5.375 percent Senior Notes
• Lenders in connection with a $664 million revolving credit facility entered into by PMI as borrower and Pemex as a guarantor. The facility is to be used to repay a portion of PMI’s existing indebtedness
• Scotiabank as lender and administrative agent on the $750 million term loan credit facility to Pemex
• Mizuho Bank, BofA Securities and SMBC as global coordinators and joint bookrunners, Mizuho Bank as administrative agent and the lenders in connection with a $1.5 billion revolving credit facility for PMI as borrower and Pemex as guarantor. The transaction also included a pay-off of an existing $1.95 billion revolving credit facility of Pemex
• Citigroup Global Markets, J.P. Morgan and Scotia Capital as initial purchasers in a Rule 144A and Regulation S offering by The Central America Bottling Corporation of senior guaranteed notes. Proceeds to be used to refinance existing debt, fund cash on the balance sheet and for general corporate purposes
• Citibank as administrative agent on a $1.025 billion syndicated term loan facility under a common terms agreement and comprised of three bilateral promissory notes issued by Petrobras in favor of Citibank, SMBC and Bladex
• BBVA as administrative agent on the $470 million refinancing of the RASSINI credit facility
• Viacom as borrower on its $3.5 billion revolving credit facility to be used for the general corporate purposes
• Mizuho Bank as administrative agent and HSBC Securities and JPMorgan Chase as global coordinators in credit facilities for a total of $8 billion for Pemex to be used to refinance existing debt, replace pre-existing credit lines and general corporate purposes
• Citibank as administrative agent on the $3.745 billion four-year revolver for AerCap Capital Designated Activity Company, a subsidiary of AerCap Holdings, to be used for general corporate purposes
• Viacom as borrower’s counsel on the amendment and restatement of its $2.5 billion revolving credit facility
• Dycom as borrower in connection with a $600 million financing
• Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires S.A., Itaú Unibanco S.A., Nassau Branch, Banco Santander Río S.A., and Citibank, N.A. as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, in connection with the $300 million senior unsecured credit facility to Vista Oil & Gas Argentina, S.A.
• Dun & Bradstreet as borrower in connection with the $1 billion refinancing of its existing $1 billion revolving credit facility and the refinancing its existing $400 million term loan facility with a new $300 million term loan facility
• BBVA, Banco Nacional de México, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of Nova Scotia as lead arrangers in connection with a $450 million refinancing for Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, a Mexican cement and concrete producer
• Lenders with the $1 billion senior unsecured revolving credit facility to Braskem America and Braskem Netherlands as borrowers and Braskem S.A. as guarantor
• HSBC as administrative agent in connection with a $300 million term loan facility to Axtel, S.A.B. de C.V., a Mexican telecommunications company, to be used to refinance indebtedness under a $750 million term loan facility
• BBVA, among others, as joint book runners and joint lead arrangers in connection with a $2 billion term loan for Pemex
• Crédit Agricole as administrative agent and Citigroup Global Markets, Crédit Agricol, HSBC Securities, Mizuho Bank, Natixis SMBC as joint bookrunners and joint lead arrangers in connection with a $1.25 billion revolving credit facility for Pemex

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Viacom in its merger with CBS
• Albemarle in connection with (i) the $1.2 billion credit facility, with JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, as joint lead arrangers to finance the acquisition of a 60% interest in certain assets comprising Mineral Resources Limited’s Wodgina lithium project in Western Australia and (ii) an amendment to their existing revolving credit facility in connection therewith
• GNL Ameris IPM SpA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ameris Capital Administradora de Fondos S.A. and InfraPartners Management LLP, on the $135 million financing provided by Industrial Bank of Korea, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Seoul Branch and the Agricultural Bank of China, Seoul Branch for the acquisition of 37% of Sociedad GNL Mejillones S.A.
• CVS Health Corporation in its sale of Drogaria Onofre to Raia Drogasil SA.
• Agrosuper S.A. in connection with four separate bilateral financings by JPMorgan Chase Bank, BNP Paribas, Bank of America and HSBC of Agrosuper’s acquisition of AquaChile, one of Chile’s largest salmon producers, and for other corporate purposes
• BBVA as administrative agent in connection with the financing of a tender offer by certain shareholders of RASSINI, S.A.B. de C.V. to buy all the outstanding shares of RASSINI
• Energía del Pacífico S.A. in its sale of 25.1% interests in Kallpa Generación S.A. and Samay I S.A. to Nautilus Inkia Holdings LLC
• Citigroup, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, on the $260 million financing provided to Vista Oil & Gas for its acquisition of certain oil and gas assets from Pampa Energia and Pluspetrol Resources Corporation through the acquisition of Petrolera Entre Lomas S.A.
• Citibank in connection with a multi-million-dollar senior secured credit facility for NG Closures, a company wholly-owned by Intercorp Group and its subsidiary Nexus Group, for the acquisition of Sinea, a plastic products/closures producer and marketer with operating facilities in Latin America
• MUFG, GE Capital EFS, ICBC, ING Capital, NORD/LB and Crédit Agricole, as coordinating lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, on $715 million of senior secured credit facilities for Gridiron Funding, a subsidiary of LS Power, and the initial purchasers, arranged by Goldman Sachs, with Gridiron Funding’s offering of $460 million in senior secured notes.  The proceeds of the financing were used to fund the acquisition of five natural gas-fired power plants located across the United States with a combined generating power of approximately 3,510 MW, including the refinancing of existing debt, and for other general corporate purposes
• American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc., as borrower on the $2.55 billion financing to finance a portion of the consideration for Holdings’ acquisition of Metaldyne Performance Group, Inc.

Power & Energy

• New York Transco LLC, a joint venture between Central Hudson, ConEdison, National Grid, and New York State Gas & Electric Corporation, as issuer on its first private placement and as borrower on the second amendment to its unsecured revolving loan facility to finance a group of transmission assets and related improvements and enhancements to substations and network and system upgrades in New York
• Axia Power and Termonorte on a private placement of senior secured notes in the aggregate principal amount of $65 million, to be used to refinance certain existing debt in respect of Termonorte’s 93 MW gas-fired power plant in Santa Marta, Colombia
• Transelec Concesiones , an affiliate of Transelec S.A., with the approximately $358 million loan facility and associated interest rate hedging for the individualized portfolio construction financing of four independent transmission lines (each with a capacity of between 2x220 kV and 2x500 kV) and four associated independent substations in Chile, with Export Development Canada, KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH and MUFG Bank, Ltd. acting as mandated lead arrangers
• DEG, FMO and PROPARCO as lenders and CIFI as mandated lead arranger on the $110 million secured credit facility made available to PENSA and San Jacinto Power International Corporation, as borrowers, for the refinancing of their existing project finance debt in connection with PENSA’s operating 72 megawatt (net) geothermal power generating facility and the 10 megawatt (net) in-development binary plant addition located in Telica, Department of León, Republic of Nicaragua
• ENGIE on its joint venture with Tokyo Gas to own, develop and operate four solar parks and two wind farms in Mexico with a combined capacity of 721 MW. The projects were awarded to ENGIE in the Second and Third Long-Term Electricity Auction held by CENACE in Mexico (“Latin American Sponsor of the Year Deal of the Year” (2019) by IJGlobal)

Infrastructure

• United States EPA on the extension of a $265 million secured loan to the DeKalb County, Georgia for the Sewer Assessment and Rehabilitation, Trunk Sewer Upsizing, and Water Main Replacement Project. The loan, issued under the WIFIA program, will fund upgrades to DeKalb County’s aging wastewater collection and treatment system. Total project costs are projected to be approximately $541 million
• United States EPA as lender on a financing, issued under the WIFIA program, to the City of Cortland in the State of New York for the Clinton Avenue Gateway Project. The transaction marks the first time that the WIFIA program has provided financing with a general obligation pledge by the borrower

• Lauded as one of the “2022 Most Influential Black Lawyers” by Savoy Magazine
• Lauded as “Highly Regarded” by IFLR1000 (2021 and 2022)
• Ranked Band 1 Latin America-for Banking & Finance by Chambers Latin America (2022); ranked Band 1 for Banking and Finance in Latin America and noted for foreign expertise in Latin America-wide for Banking & Finance – USA by Chambers Global (2022)
• Named Leading Lawyer for Banking and Finance and recognized for Projects and Energy by Legal 500 Latin America (2022)
• Selected to Top 100 Female Lawyer List by Latinvex (2019-2021)
• Named Leading Lawyer in Banking by IFLR 1000 (2020)
• Named to Mexico Private Practice Powerlist by Legal 500 Latin America (2017-2019)

Clients tell Chambers & Partners that Denise is “the go-to whenever I need help with corporate loans and structured transactions,” “a very practical and commercial legal adviser,” and that “super professional across the table and gets things done quickly and efficiently.”