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Rob Mathews

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Rob Mathews is a partner in the Firm's Capital Markets Group. Rob's clients benefit from his significant experience in multinational corporate and finance transactions, notably high-yield debt offerings. Clients comment that "Rob is a high yield guru – you know you can rely on his technical advice and market knowledge." (Chambers UK, 2019) and that he is "client-focused, solution-oriented and commercial; he has many years of experience as is able to advise on any issue." (Legal 500, 2019)

Excerpt: In this article, our lawyers provide an overview of the main trends in the leveraged finance market during a turbulent period, with an M&A backlog and imminent maturities indicating a recovery. They look at changes in borrowing activity, new challenges with new solutions, ESG and digital bonds and consider if a bounce-back is on the horizon.

Watch and listen to Baker McKenzie specialists and industry experts talk about recent legal and commercial developments affecting financial institutions around the world. The latest webinar in the series looks at Sustainability for Financial Institutions – Global Trends and the LatAm Perspective.

In addition to the traditional (corporate and/or securities-based) ratings commonly obtained by an issuer in connection with an international debt offering, corporates may now avail themselves of a new metric — the ESG rating. To date, there is no consensus on how ESG ratings, which assess a company’s ESG performance, are derived or what they reflect. Baker McKenzie lawyers Rob Mathews, Ben Bierwirth and Elaine Baynham consider some of the challenges posed by ESG ratings in the context of debt securities offerings.

In addition to the traditional (corporate and/or securities-based) ratings commonly obtained by an issuer in connection with an international debt offering, corporates may now avail themselves of a new metric – the ESG rating. To date, there is no consensus on how ESG ratings, which assess a company’s ESG performance, are derived or what they reflect.
As more corporate bonds are issued linked to ESG ratings, these ratings will become more material, and a consensus around how ESG ratings should be disclosed and regulated will directly impact their reliability.

The leveraged finance market in 2021 saw record-breaking levels of activity, mainly driven by private equity M&A and LBOs, comprised mainly of opportunistic deals or ones which had previously been put on hold. The report looks at how the EMEA leveraged finance market is responding to COVID-19 challenges, the emerging market and ESG. It also covers predictions on direct lending, the impact of new Fintech options, and the effect of rising interest rates.

Sustainable Finance as a trend and financing option has grown exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. In this series of short podcasts, our ESG Debt & Equity experts discuss key tips and things you should you when considering raising sustainable finance, including the ever-evolving legal and regulatory requirements…

Sustainable Finance as a trend and financing option has grown exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. In this series of short podcasts, our ESG Debt & Equity experts discuss key tips and things you should you when considering raising sustainable finance, including the ever-evolving legal and regulatory requirements…

Share Sustainable Finance as a trend and financing option has grown exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. In this series of short podcasts, our ESG Debt & Equity experts discuss key tips and things you should you when considering raising sustainable finance, including the ever-evolving legal and regulatory…