At the forefront of innovation in sovereign advisory

White Oak Advisory provides clients with a full spectrum of sovereign advisory services. Our core activities include providing advice on:

• The design and implementation of liability management initiatives

• Funding, hedging, and refinancing strategies for sovereign and other public sector borrowers

• The restructuring of external and domestic sovereign debt owed to all creditor categories

• Optimal strategies for dealing with contingent liabilities within both the public and private sector

• Negotiations with the IMF and other multilateral agencies

• Strategic reviews of state-owned enterprises

• Financial aspects of complex commercial negotiations

• Credit ratings and investor relations

• Specialist advice on recovery strategies and prospects

• The strategic, institutional, and operational aspects of public debt management

Climate Financing

White Oak Advisory also has a leading climate finance practice that has been responsible for many of the most important innovations in the field of recent years. The team has:

• Pioneered the use of natural disaster clauses (also known as ‘climate resilient debt clauses’) in sovereign debt contracts

• Advised the sovereign borrower on two of the five sovereign debt conversions (also known as ‘debt swaps’) to date focused on the marine conservation

• Advised on the design and issuance of sovereign blue bonds, and other debt instruments designed to raise financing for conservation and climate change mitigation efforts, often by leveraging multilateral support

Our work on climate financing is underpinned by the belief that most conservation and climate change mitigation projects can only be sustainably financed on the basis of low cost, long term financing.  

Sovereign Debt Conversions (Debt Swaps)

White Oak Advisory is the leading provider of impartial financial advice to governments on the design and execution of sovereign debt conversions (also known as ‘debt swaps’), irrespective of whether these be focused on conservation or other objectives. Having advised the debtor government on the first ever modern sovereign debt swap, White Oak Advisory has continued to push the boundaries on behalf of sovereign clients by developing increasingly efficient and adaptable debt swap structures, and will be unveiling the latest ‘next generation’ debt swap model in late 2024. White Oak Advisory also provides multilateral development banks (MDBs) with advice on how best to channel MDB support to sovereigns wishing to execute debt swaps.