Banking & Finance

SIGMA's work in the Banking & Finance Department involves the preparation and negotiation of financing agreements governed indistinctly by Panamanian or foreign laws, and Panamanian law collateral packages at all levels of complexity. SIGMA's expertise in collateral documents resulted, for example, in SIGMA's being the law firm that initially drafted the trust agreement that was used to sever ownership of the Soho Mall and the department-store chain Félix B. Maduro from their ultimate beneficial owner when the person was placed on the OFAC list in 2017. SIGMA has also participated heavily in the preparation and negotiation of the first collateral trust agreement in Panama that permits securing different financing facilities at the same time with multiple independent pools of assets. Finally, SIGMA structured the first trust agreement that was used to secure successive financing facilities, a legal technology that is slowly being incorporated as a standard feature in collateral trust agreements for large financings in Panama.

SIGMA has also assisted clients in the financing of large infrastructure projects. For example, SIGMA assisted the consortium that built Line 2 of the Panamanian metropolitan railway and the extension of that line, aggregating more than US$800,000,000; and also assisted the consortium that will build the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal in a financing aggregating almost two billion dollars.