Deborah Festa
Partner
Deborah Festa is a partner in O'Melveny's Los Angeles office and a member of the Investment Funds & Securitization Practice.
In its “Structured Finance: Securitization” category,
The Legal 500 (2009) cites her focus on complex securitization transactions and praises her as “effective” with “a strong can-do attitude.” She also has been recognized as a "Future Star of America" by
The Times (London).
Deborah’s practice has a focus in the following areas:
Securitization: She has represented investment managers, issuers and investors in every stage in the life cycle of securitizations, including interim warehouse financing arrangements; structuring and negotiating deals; securities repackaging transactions; restructurings; and redemptions/unwinds. Her practice involves many different asset classes but has a particular emphasis on cash flow, market value and synthetic CLO/CDO/CBO transactions.
Investment Funds: She has advised fund sponsors, managers and investors in a variety of fund transactions in different asset classes, including leveraged loans, securities, and real estate.
Investment Manager Acquisitions: She advises investment managers in connection with acquisition, sale and sub-advisory transactions involving other investment managers and their management contracts.
General Corporate: She has broad-based corporate experience and has represented publicly-traded and privately-held companies in connection with public offerings, tender offers, acquisitions and divestitures, public and private equity investments, and joint ventures. She also has advised senior management and boards of publicly-traded companies on SEC compliance, public reporting, and corporate governance matters.
Illustrative Professional Experience
- Represented KKR Financial as collateral manager and investor in all of its cash flow CLO transactions, including a market value deal restructuring in March 2009 and a May 2007 transaction that was one of the largest non-bank arbitrage CLO transactions on record in any market, with an initial issuance size of over $3.5 billion
- Represented Alcentra in its July 2009 acquisition of the US CLO business of Rabobank Nederland
- Represented the issuer and AIG Global Investment Corp., as collateral manager, in a $350 million CLO transaction
- Represented a leveraged debt asset management company with over $11 billion in assets under management as portfolio manager in a series of $350-500 million cash flow CLO transactions
- Represented a global hedge fund management company as collateral manager in its debut $500 million cash flow CLO transaction
- Represented a prominent investment manager as reference portfolio manager in several series issuances of credit-linked notes in a major investment bank-sponsored synthetic CDO program
- Represented a private investment firm with approximately $6.9 billion in assets under management as investment manager of an $800 million credit opportunities fund structured as an SEC-registered investment company
- Represented a major Southern California real estate developer in structuring and admitting to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange a fund created to invest in and develop a portfolio of properties in Vietnam and Cambodia
- Represented a leveraged capital private merchant banking firm in the formation and capitalization of a $50 million loan assets fund
Professional Activities
Author, “Industry Insight - CLO Restructurings,”
The Deal (April 2009)
Language, French
Member, Board of Councilors
, Southern California Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Society
Community Involvement
Member of Board of Councilors, Southern California Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Society