Paul, Weiss’s Latin America Practice provides strategic counsel on a wide range of cross-border corporate transactions and litigation matters in the region, as well as on cross-border restructurings and regulatory enforcement matters. Our clients include leading global private equity firms, multinational corporations, public and privately held companies and other investors.
The Latin America Practice combines the firm’s stellar experience guiding clients through their most complex matters under the leadership of one of the region’s foremost M&A practitioners.
It provides comprehensive, corporate advice on cross-border deals, restructurings, major litigation disputes and multi-regulator enforcement proceedings in the region. Our clients include private equity sponsors, public and private companies, investment banks, institutional investors and other market participants focused on or based in Latin America.
Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ Transactions
The Latin America practice seamlessly handles both inbound and outbound M&A matters, leveraging our deep knowledge of the Latin American business and legal landscape. A high level of partner involvement ensures our Latin America-focused clients receive sophisticated, timely and practical guidance at every stage of the transaction, while drawing on the unmatched experience and bench strength of the firm’s global M&A practice.
The firm advises on a diverse array of high-profile, complex transactions spanning numerous industries, including:
- Mergers and acquisitions, including public and private company deals and private equity transactions
- Capital markets transactions, including equity, debt and hybrid securities offerings and private placements
- Financing, including leveraged buyouts, structured products and securitizations and derivatives
- Project finance and infrastructure development
Our ability to partner seamlessly with clients is enhanced by our long-standing relationships with the leading local law firms in each jurisdiction, ensuring comprehensive legal advice tailored to the nuances of each jurisdiction involved.
In addition to our broad range of corporate expertise, we also advise clients in other key areas, including:
Disputes and Cross-Border Regulatory Enforcement Defense
Members of our renowned Litigation Department provide critical, comprehensive guidance to Latin American clients on sensitive cross-border enforcement matters, including those related to U.S. regulatory scrutiny; represent them in high-stakes commercial disputes involving U.S. state and federal courts and international arbitral institutions; and advise on compliance with U.S. and global regulatory regimes.
Restructuring
With one of the most renowned and sought-after Restructuring groups in the nation, the firm has long guided leading Latin American companies and linchpin noteholder groups through significant chapter 11 and 15 restructurings, cross-border receivership proceedings, debtor financings and refinancings, and debt recapitalizations.
Recent
Experience
Recent Engagements
M&A/Private Equity Transactions
- SBA Communications Corporation, a leading independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure, in its approximately $975 million transaction under which Millicom International Cellular S.A. sold to SBA and leased back a portfolio of approximately 7,000 towers across Central America.
- General Atlantic in numerous investments throughout the Latin America region, including its acquisition of Actis, a leading investor in sustainable infrastructure, to create a diversified global investment platform with approximately $96 billion in combined assets under management (AUM).
- SoftBank Vision Fund, alongside SoftBank Group Corp., in an investment of up to $1 billion in Rappi, a Colombia-based on-demand delivery provider.
- Univision Holdings, Inc., the leading Hispanic media company in the U.S., in its $4.8 billion combination with the content and media assets of Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., a Mexico-based media company.
- State Grid International Development Limited, a utilities company, in its $3.04 billion acquisition of Compania General de Electricidad S.A. (CGE), a Chile-based utilities company from Naturgy Energy Group S.A., a Spain-based utilities company.
Litigation
- GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, an airline based in Brazil, and its directors and officers, in securing the dismissal of all claims in a securities class action over alleged misstatements in earnings reports issued during the pandemic.
- Glencore International in securing the dismissal, affirmed on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, of a multibillion-dollar antitrust, fraud and corruption lawsuit brought against international oil trading companies by a U.S. litigation trust allegedly established by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), alleging that the oil trading companies conspired to obtain inside information about tenders for the sale and purchase of oil and oil products.
- Igor Cornelsen, a Brazilian investment banker, in obtaining a ruling in a criminal securities fraud case that Mr. Cornelsen, a Brazilian national and resident, is not a fugitive and should not be disentitled from pursuing his motion to dismiss in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Numerous institutional investors in obtaining judgments awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in connection with defaulted sovereign debt issued by the Republic of Argentina, including victories before the Southern District of New York and, unanimously, before the New York State Court of Appeals. In the course of these litigations and related matters, we advised clients on a variety of issues related to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 and associated comity-based doctrines. Our clients have also filed briefs as amicus curiae before the U.S. Court of Appeals in sovereign debt litigations brought by other investors that raised issues of concern to our clients.
- Two prominent Guatemalan businessmen in connection with their listing on a new, regionally specific U.S. Department of State sanctions list for vague and unspecified allegations of corruption in the energy sector.
Restructuring
- TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., a leading media and television company in Mexico, and certain of its subsidiaries, in the dismissal of the involuntary chapter 11 petitions filed in the Southern District of New York.
- An ad hoc group of senior secured creditors of Oro Negro in a restructuring of over $900 million of secured debt obligations issued pursuant to Norwegian law-governed documents that involves contested concurso mercantil proceedings in Mexico, a related chapter 15 proceeding in the Southern District of New York, and litigation in Singapore and Norway.
- The ad hoc group of 2020 secured PDVSA noteholders in a potential restructuring of the senior secured notes issued by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., an oil and gas company that is wholly owned by the government of Venezuela.
- Co-counsel to Apollo Global Management, as DIP lender in the chapter 11 proceedings and contested confirmation process for Grupo Aeroméxico, the flag carrier airline of Mexico.
- U.S. counsel to the ad hoc committee of senior noteholders of Pacific Exploration and Production (n/k/a Frontera Energy) and certain debtor-in-possession financing providers in the cross-border restructuring of the company’s approximately $5 billion of debt obligations.
Leticia Ossa Daza’s Additional Experience Includes
- Expofaro, a leading Colombian manufacturing company, on the sale of certain assets to Levi Strauss Colombia S.A.S.
- Sites del Perú S.A.C., a subsidiary of Sitios Latinoamérica, S.A.B. de C.V., in its inaugural offering of S/872 million ($235 million equivalent) in Senior Notes.
- Ferrara Candy Company, the largest sugar confections company in the U.S., in its acquisition of Dori Alimentos, one of Brazil’s leading manufacturers and distributors of sweets and snacks.
- Costa Brazil/Amyris: Represented co-founder Michele Levy in the sale of clean beauty brand Costa Brazil to Amyris.
- Accel: Represented Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel in its investment in Flink, the leading app-based consumer trading platform in Mexico.
- Odinsa S.A., a major developer of transportation projects in South America, in the sale of a 50% stake in certain of its airport concessions in Colombia and Ecuador to a Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) affiliate as part of the expansion of the infrastructure platform the two partners formed to operate and develop their South American road projects.
- Confidential U.S. private investment firm: Represented a confidential U.S. private investment firm on its joint venture with a local partner in the healthcare real estate sector in a Latin American jurisdiction.
- América Móvil in the approximately $6.25 billion sale of TracFone to Verizon.
- Greycroft as lead investor in equity funding for Latin American digital lender Addi.
- Jaguar Growth Partners/Colombian Healthcare Properties: Jaguar Growth Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on real estate investments in emerging markets, and its affiliates in connection with the formation of Colombian Healthcare Properties, a company that specializes in the acquisition and management of healthcare real estate properties in Colombia.
- Vilmorin & Cie/Sursem, Geneze/Pampa Capital: Represented Vilmorin & Cie, one of the world’s leading seed companies, in its acquisition of two independent South American seed companies, Sursem (Argentina) and Geneze (Brazil) from Pampa Capital.
- Weener Plastics/3i Group/Proenfar: Represented Weener Plastics Group and 3i in Weener’s acquisition of Proenfar.
- Zurich Insurance Group/QBE: Represented Zurich Insurance Group in the acquisition of Australian insurer QBE in Latin America for $409 million.
- Celsia SA: Represented Celsia SA, Colombia’s fourth-largest power producer, in its $840 million acquisition of stakes in seven power plants in Panama and Costa Rica from GDF Suez.
- Swiss Re: Represented Swiss Re Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ Solutions in its acquisition of a majority stake in CompañÃa Aseguradora de Fianzas S.A. Confianza.
- Yildirim Group: Represent the Yildirim Group in various transactions in Latin America including the acquisition of mining projects in Colombia from CCX (part of the EBX, Eike Batista group).
- Maurel & Prom/Tuscany International Drilling Inc.: Represented France-based oil & gas company Maurel & Prom in its acquisition of Tuscany International Drilling Inc.’s drilling activities in Africa.
- Folhamatic Group/Sage Group plc: Represented Brazil-based tax and accounting software company Folhamatic Group in its sale to UK-based Sage Group.
- Private Equity Funds/Despegar.com, Inc.: Represented two private equity funds in their investments in Argentina-based Despegar.com, an online travel service with operations in North and South America.
- Represented Mexican state-owned oil and gas company, Pemex, in a FCPA & RICO claim against HP.
- Chapter 11/LATAM Airlines: Represented certain creditors in the Chapter 11 restructuring of LATAM Airlines.
- Represented PwC, Inc. as the court-appointed monitor for Pacific Exploration & Production Corp., an oil and natural gas enterprise with interests primarily in Colombia, and also in Peru, Brazil, and Belize, in Chapter 15 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, resulting in the restructuring of approximately $5.4 billion.