Sidley represented a joint venture among Nelnet, Inc. and certain investors, in acting as issuer’s counsel for the US$4,031,720,000 Nelnet Student Loan Trust 2021-A Private Education Loan-Backed Notes issuance. The transaction is one of the largest asset-backed securitizations in any consumer asset class since the 2008 global financial crisis. This is the first securitization of the approximately US$10 billion student loan portfolio that was acquired by the joint venture earlier in 2021.
The Sidley team was led by T.J. Gordon and Megan Roberts (Global Finance); with assistance from David K. Solow, Rohan Mehta, Joey Lim, James A. Kutter, Victoria R. Grace-Hunt, Sally K. Jordan (paralegal), Pietro Fontana, Dale Lum, and William Shirley (Global Finance); John K. Van De Weert, Tom Hunter, and Kerry Nilsen (Banking and Financial Services); Perry J. Shwachman and Ellen P. Pesch (Insurance); Ryan M. Scofield, Courtney J. Gilberg, Ellen Heighten, and Sara Garcia Duran (M&A and Private Equity); Richard M. Silverman, Peter D. Edgerton, Robert M. Kreitman, Tracy D. Williams, and John Wilson (Tax); Kevin F. Blatchford and Prabhat K. Mehta (Capital Markets); Beth J. Dickstein (Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation); and Brian M. Kaplowitz (Investment Funds).