Hunton & Williams LLP Represents Costa Rican Utilities and Telecommunications Company in Financing from Inter-American Development Bank

Miami — July 24, 2008 — Hunton & Williams LLP today announced that it represented Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad ("ICE") in a US$381 million credit facility from the Inter-American Development Bank ("IADB"). The unsecured 15-year loan will consolidate and refinance the company's external debt.

ICE is a national autonomous public institution that holds financial and administrative independence from the Costa Rican government. The loan will assist the company's telecommunications division in facing upcoming competition in the country's telecommunications sector due to Costa Rica signing on to DR-CAFTA (Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement).

"This is a significant transaction, one of the largest undertaken in Costa Rica, and comes during the early stages of the opening to competition in the telecommunications market. This financing will allow ICE to continue to be the leader in the telecommunications and energy sectors in Costa Rica, as well as meet demands that competition and other developments in these sectors will create," said Fernando C. Alonso, partner in the Miami office and head of the Latin America Practice Group. Alonso and associate J. Andrés Cedrón led the transaction, along with ICE's in-house counsel, Yaila Sánchez.

IADB was represented by in-house counsel Augusto Repetto and partners Ronald Lachner and David Gutiérrez and associates Manuel Ventura and Natalia van der Laat from BLP Abogados and by Clifford Chance in the United States.

Hunton & Williams LLP has a large and experienced Latin American practice, consisting of more than 50 attorneys and consultants who have a long history in the region. Clients range from some of the world's largest financial institutions and multinational corporations, to local governments and agencies, to prominent Latin American families. The Latin America practice group has handled matters in every Latin American and major Caribbean country.