INTERNATIONAL FIRMS FIRM BRIEFINGS Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy
2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela
Key offices New York, São Paulo
Most active disciplines
Financial and corporate: Banking, Equipment/Asset finance, Investment funds, M&A, Project finance Public: Construction, Projects
Key energy sectors
LNG, Mining and metals, Oil and gas, Power networks and distribution, Renewables, Traditional power
Key infrastructure sectors Airports and aviation, Healthcare, Ports and shipping, Rail, Roads, Water and sewage
Law capability English, US
Key partners
Carlos Albarracin, Daniel Bartfeld, Glenn Gerstell, Marcelo Mottesi, Tobias Stirnberg
Of all the global firms, Milbank indisputably has one of the two or three best and widest-ranging Latin America practices. The firm puts to use almost unrivalled expertise on local jurisdictions and their re- spective legal regimes and is well attuned to trends in Asia, namely the China Development Bank’s intensifying interest in the region. A client states: “We are really happy with the services Milbank is
doing for us. We deal with associates who normally can handle projects directly, without the day-to-day intervention of partners, but we have access to partners when needed. The firm is more expensive than some law firms, but the value for the money is really fair.” In December 2012, partners Glenn Gerstell, Gary Wigmore and
Shepard Liu represented the China Development Bank Corporation as joint lead arranger and senior lender in a $390 million loan to So- ciedad Concesionaria Operadora Aeroportuaria Internacional, or Opain. The financing secured by Opain for the expansion of Bogota’s El Dorado international airport ultimately totaled $1.1 billion. This was not only the first time that a Chinese bank worked alongside the IDB, but was also a first in Colombia, where project financings typi- cally use private assets for collateral and it was not possible to offer such collateral to banks in the case of a public concession (the airport) owned by the government. In November 2012, partners Andrew Janszky, Tobias Stirnberg, Matt
Squires and Gabriella Britto provided counsel to Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and HSBC as initial purchasers in oil and gas contract driller QGOG Constellation’s $700 million senior notes of- fering. In September 2012, partners Marcelo Mottesi, Jay Grushkin, Matt
Squires, Andrew Walker and Randy Clark represented Bank of America in granting the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil its first-ever private loan, in the amount of $479 million, maturing in 2022. For many years, partly as a result of Brazil’s economic troubles of the 1990s, Brazil’s states were barred from accessing international lenders directly. As a di- rect result of this deal, which involved extensive negotiations with the Republic, Mato Grosso is able to repay part of its debt to the federal government, explore avenues for investment, and have a much stronger financial profile.
Morrison & Foerster
2012 Firm Overview Active jurisdictions
Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico
Key offices Tokyo, New York, San Francisco
Most active disciplines Disputes: Financial and corporate Financial and corporate: Equipment/Asset finance, M&A, Private equity, Project finance Public: Competition, Construction, Environmental, Land, Projects, Regulatory Tax: Corporate tax, Indirect tax, Transfer pricing
Key energy sectors
LNG, Mining and metals, Oil and gas, Power networks and distribution, Renewables, Traditional power
Key infrastructure sectors Airports and aviation, Ports and shipping, Rail, Roads, Water and sewage
Law capability English, Japanese
Key partners Michael Graffagna, Zane Gresham
Morrison & Foerster’s Tokyo office takes a lead on many of the firm’s most complex and innovative Latin American transactions. This fact is evidence both of the abilities of the legal team working under project finance and development practice group head Michael Graffagna in Tokyo, and of the increasing interest in Latin America on the part of lenders, sponsors and developers in the Far East. Partner Peter Dopsch provided counsel to Cerro del Aguila in rela-
tion to a $595 million credit facility granted by a consortium of export credit agencies and commercial banks. The client plans to use the credit facility, which had its final closing on August 17 2012, to develop a 525MW hydroelectric power plant in Huancavelica, Peru. Partners Dale Caldwell and Michael Graffagna represented Sumit-
omo Metal Mining and Sumitomo Corporation in relation to a $320 million junior facility provided by Mizuho Corporate Bank, BTU, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, guaranteed by JOGMEC. The recipients of the facility intend to provide funds for a $2.9 billion copper and molybdenum mine in Chile’s Sierra Gorda district, with production expected to kick off in 2014. Partners Zane Gresham and Rafael Hernandez provided counsel to
a consortium including American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, US Airways and AirTran Airways seeking the privatisation of the San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. As a result of the negotiations, guided by MoFo’s lawyers, the airlines won a $2.6 bil- lion public-private partnership (PPP) involving a 40-year lease to run the airport and 15-year use agreements among the operators.
18 ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE | LATIN AMERICA 2013
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