FIRM BRIEFINGS INTERNATIONAL FIRMS Latham & Watkins
2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago
Key offices Chicago, New York, San Diego, Washington
Most active disciplines Private equity, Project finance
Key energy sectors Oil and gas, Power networks and distribution, Renewables, Traditional power
Key infrastructure sectors Roads, Ports and shipping
Law capability English, Spanish, US
Key partners Christopher Cross, Antonio Del Pino, Sony Ben-Moshe, John Sachs
Latham & Watkins is one of only a handful of firms, also including Milbank and White & Case, that manage to balance ingenuity and in- novation on major deals with reliability in carrying out plain vanilla deals. A client recalled, “We did work with partner Christopher Cross on a transaction in Colombia a year or so ago. He is very knowledge- able, he has a very good rapport with clients and he takes a very bal- anced approach, so that was quite a positive experience.” Cross and Antonio Del Pino represented Ospraie, Fermaca Global,
and Tarahumara Pipelines in the financing and development of a 380- km natural gas pipeline project in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Fi- nanced by a consortium of international banks, the pipeline will transport gas from El Paso, Texas, to power plants operated by Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission in Chihuahua. One unusual feature of this project is that it obtained financing through banks, as opposed to European project finance lenders. Financing the pipeline required ne- gotiating private equity sponsor requirements for equity liquidity, covenant flexibility, pricing, a bespoke EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) arrangement, and other matters with banks spread out across Europe, the US, Canada, Asia and Mexico. The pipeline is an achievement – it is expected to transport 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day, accounting for no less than a quarter of Mexico’s total gas con- sumption. Commercial operation of the pipeline is fully expected to commence on time in July 2013. Cross and Del Pino are also providing counsel to Colombia’s na-
tional oil and gas firm, Ecopetrol, in the financing and development of expansions to the Reficar Refinery located in Cartagena, Colombia. A component of this project is the development of an integrated com- plex serving the domestic and export markets as part of a joint venture with a global partner. In November 2012, Del Pino represented Recaudo Bogota and
sponsors headed by Grupo Rios in a roughly $180 million senior se- cured project financing for the development and operation of a fare collection system serving Bogota’s mass transit networks. In another deal on the infrastructure and transportation side, John Sachs provided counsel to the Inter-American Development Bank in the provision of a $400 million partial credit guarantee backstopping parts of $3.4 bil- lion in commercial bank loans for a 30-year concession for the building and maintenance of 558km of toll roads in several Mexican states. The guarantee was terminated in September 2012.
McCarthy Tétrault
2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions
Argentina, Chile, Peru
Key offices Toronto, Vancouver
Most active disciplines Disputes: Financial and corporate Financial and corporate: Banking, Commodities trading and energy derivatives, Funds, M&A, Project finance Public: Competition, Construction, Employment, Environmental, Land, Projects, Regulatory Tax: Corporate tax, Indirect tax, Transfer pricing
Key infrastructure sectors Mining
Key partners
David Lever, Marc Dorion, Roger Taplin, Brian Graves, Richard Miner, Gary Litwack, Seán O’Neill
McCarthy Tétrault is ranked as a leading firm among clients, with one saying, “They are in the top two or three of about ten firms I’ve worked with around the world.” Though McCarthy has no offices in Latin America, they nonetheless handle some of the largest and most impor- tant mining M&A deals in the region. Partners say the firm always runs its assumptions regarding regulations and transactions by local firms, noting that given the lack of maturity in some markets and the changes to regulations, it is important to utilize local knowledge from the start of any transaction. A partner from the mining practice said, “From a fundamental level Latin America just has a lot of quirks, which is why it’s even more important to have local knowledge.” McCarthy is counsel to Glencore in a much-anticipated acquisition
of Xstrata, worth $90 billion USD, that has yet to be closed due to the number of global regulators who have to approve the deal. The firm has also represented Xstrata in separate transactions, including the sale of a hydroelectric project in Chile to the Australian company Original Energy. The project encompassed three hydroelectric plants and a trans- mission system to be connected to the country’s national power grid; it closed in April 2012 for $150 million USD plus an undisclosed dif- fered payment.
ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | LATIN AMERICA 2013 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108