Richard S. Lincer is a partner based in the New York office.
Mr. Lincer’s practice focuses on corporate and financial matters, including international project financings and debt restructurings, corporate and asset acquisitions, joint ventures and high yield and leveraged finance transactions, as well as public and private offerings of corporate securities and investment funds.
Mr. Lincer’s project finance work has included substantial experience with cogeneration and other electrical power projects, infrastructure projects such as toll roads and ports, and various types of industrial facilities such as pulp and paper mills. Mr. Lincer has been particularly active in the development of innovative structures for the financing of infrastructure projects in Latin America. Of special note is the work done by Mr. Lincer, as counsel for both sponsors and underwriters, in connection with the groundbreaking international capital markets financings for various Mexican and Chilean toll road projects. Mr. Lincer also served as counsel for the sponsors in connection with the project financing of the Caucedo container terminal in the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Lincer was resident in the firm’s Hong Kong office in 1998 and 1999. Notable transactions in which Mr. Lincer was involved during that period included the restructuring of the foreign debt of the Daewoo companies (one of the largest private sector restructurings ever), the acquisition of a controlling interest in Korea First Bank by Newbridge Capital, the acquisition by an investment affiliate of the Goldman Sachs Group of an interest in Kookmin Bank, and note issues by Malaysia and by Petroliam Nasional Berhard ("PETRONAS"), the Malaysian national oil company.
Since his return to the New York office, Mr. Lincer has continued to play an active role in transactions involving Asian companies. He was a member of the Cleary Gottlieb team that advised SK Global and its Korean creditors in the restructuring of over $7 billion in debt. Most recently, Mr. Lincer was involved in the $3.3 billion sale of Korea First Bank by Newbridge Asia, the largest-ever foreign investment in South Korea, and he represented Sateri International in the project financing for the expansion of the pulp mill owned by its subsidiary, Bahia Pulp, in Brazil.
Other significant transactions in which Mr. Lincer has played a leading role include: AIG Highstar Capital in its acquisition of P&O Ports North America, which comprised the U.S. port operations of DP World, and the subsequent acquisitions of the marine terminal operator MTC Holdings and the Puerta Mexico intermodal terminal facility; representing Istithmar World PJSC in the financing for its acquisition of the luxury specialty retailer Barneys New York; the financing arrangements for the proposed acquisition of Qantas by a consortium of private equity firms; the spinoff by American Express Company of its American Express Financial Advisors subsidiary (now renamed Ameriprise Financial); representation of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) in its negotiations with General Motors Corporation and Ford Motor Company regarding adjustments to their retiree healthcare benefit obligations; the acquisition by Finland's Ahlstrom Corporation of the nonwovens division of Dexter Corporation; the project financing of the Autopista del Maipo toll road in Chile; the $1.4 billion financing by Telemar of a greenfield mobile and fixed line network in Brazil; the project financing of the Stendal pulp mill (the largest-ever project financing in Germany); the development of a methanol plant by the The Signal Companies in Chile; and the development and financing of the Celpac greenfield pulp mill in Chile.
Mr. Lincer joined the firm in 1979 and became a partner in 1986. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lincer served as law clerk for the Honorable Eugene H. Nickerson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Lincer received a J.D. degree in 1978 from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a Notes and Comments Editor of the Columbia Law Review. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale College in 1975.
Mr. Lincer is a member of the Bar in New York and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Mr. Lincer is also a member of the Board of Trustees of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.