Ground-breaking green bond issuance wins Deal of the Year: Structured Finance and Securitisation.
Matheson LLP is honoured to have won Deal of the Year: Structured finance and securitisation at the IFLR Europe Awards 2026. The winning deal, for the firm’s work on a ILTE Lietuva green securitised bond, was announced last night at a ceremony in London.
The deal, a securitisation of a portfolio of Lithuanian green mortgage loans, represented a landmark transaction in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. It was the first AAA-rated green bond issuance in the Baltics and the first public securitisation in Lithuania. The deal, which closed in December 2025, supports energy-efficient renovations for multi-apartment buildings and demonstrated how structured finance can effectively accelerate the green transition.
Matheson Managing Partner, Darren Maher; said: “The IFLR Awards are among the most authoritative benchmarks in the market, and this recognition reflects the work our Finance and Capital Markets team is delivering on complex, cross-border transactions. It speaks to the technical expertise and judgement we bring to some of the most demanding deals in the market, and to the trust our clients place in us to deliver at that level.”
“My congratulations to the team on what was a landmark transaction for the region, and my thanks to our clients for continuing to partner with us on their most complex and ambitious mandates.”
Matheson is widely acknowledged as having the pre-eminent and largest debt capital markets, structured finance, securitisation and derivatives team in Ireland.
Matheson acts as Irish legal and tax counsel to many international clients in relation to debt capital market transactions under their respective Irish structured products (including deposit and fund-linked structures), notes, bonds, warrants, repackaging and EMTN issuing programmes. Matheson arranges listings of such securities on Euronext Dublin, the Vienna Stock Exchange, the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange, the Channel Islands Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. These transactions often involve issuing notes and ground-breaking debt instruments.
In the last 12 months, Matheson has worked on a number of pioneering and first to market transactions, including a number of transactions that were documented solely under Irish law (which continues to be a recurring theme). Matheson is one of Ireland’s foremost law firms and its debt capital markets practice benefits significantly from our reputation as having Ireland’s leading M&A and Financial Regulatory practices.
About the IFLR Awards
The IFLR Awards celebrate the legal industry’s most innovative work, with a special focus on cutting-edge achievements in cross-border transactions. Each year, they honour the deals, teams, and firms that push boundaries and set new standards in legal practice and recognise those who are reshaping financial law, from leading practitioners to rising stars, and champion innovation in legal tech, ESG, and financial regulation that enhance the global investment landscape. Annual ceremonies are held in Africa, America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
Winning deals had to meet regional and cross-border requirements and must have been completed during 2025. Matheson’s winning deal was picked from an eight-strong shortlist of structured finance and securitisation deals which involved nearly thirty different European law firms.
For more information about the IFLR Europe awards, please see the IFLR website here.
