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English Español
Covington’s corporate practice in Latin America draws on a dedicated team of lawyers who are experienced in dealing with local legal institutions and business practices, and who have the language and cultural skills needed to service clients in a broad range of businesses operating and investing in the region. We are also able to draw upon a network of contacts in the legal, policy and business communities in Latin America to ensure a seamless and cost-efficient integration of local and international advice to our clients. We handle complex assignments in private equity, mergers and acquisitions, financings and capital market transactions, and have been directly involved in significant matters throughout the region, spanning across the finance, insurance, telecommunications, consumer goods and other industries. We are also often brought into one-off situations where our focus is on a business, legal or policy issue that requires the added creativity and experience that our firm can provide or into emerging fields of practice (such as transactions focused on the preservation of forest resources or the mitigation of climate change risks). By coordinating closely with our firm’s leading regulatory and international dispute resolution practices, we are able to complement the work of our transactional teams with their added business and strategic insights.
Our Latin American corporate practice has focused in recent years on matters involving Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Panama, Colombia, Argentina, and other countries in Central and South America. We have been engaged in matters ranging from early-stage, private equity investments in emerging companies to major strategic acquisitions or dispositions of consumer businesses, banks and other financial services companies, real estate and hospitality assets and other businesses in the region. We also advise companies located in Latin America in connection with capital markets, bank financing and merger and acquisition transactions in the United States and elsewhere. In the course of their careers, our lawyers have been involved in landmark transactions in banking (for example, as co-counsel to Citigroup in its $12.5 billion acquisition of Grupo Financiero Banamex), insurance, healthcare, telecommunications and media.
Our goal, and our competitive strength in every case, is to offer advice that meets the highest standards of professionalism, service and expertise, and to provide a seamless connection to the business, legal and policy environments of Latin America.
Representative Matters
- Grupo Financiero Banorte, the Mexican financial group, and its affiliate Afore XXI Banorte in the $1.6 billion acquisition of Afore Bancomer from Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), the Spanish bank, to create Mexico’s largest pension fund.
- Grupo Sura, the Colombian financial group, and its affiliate AFP Integra S.A. in the $516 million acquisition of 50% of AFP Horizonte S.A., the Peruvian pension fund, from BBVA.
- GlaxoSmithKline in connection with its acquisition of Laboratorios Phoenix S.A. in Argentina
- Citigroup, in connection with the merger of its Chilean operations with Banco de Chile and its subsidiaries, the acquisition by Citigroup of an interest in the controlling shareholder of Banco de Chile and the purchase by Citibank NA of the assets and businesses of the United States branches of Banco de Chile.
- Counsel to a major European commercial bank in connection with a series of multi-billion dollar acquisitions and divestitures of financial services companies in Latin America over a five year period, including transactions in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.
- Tonon Bioenergia S.A. of Brazil in connection with financing obtained from an international bank syndicate.
- Brysam Global Partners in the acquisition of a minority equity interest in BCSC, S.A., a consumer finance company in Colombia.
- Hoteles Decameron Colombia, in its partnership with (and other transactions involving) Caribbean Real Estate Opportunity Fund.
- Ecomadera Forest Conservation, LLC, in connection with a community forestry project in Ecuador.
- Citigroup Inc., in connection with the re-structuring of Avantel, S.A., and in various completed or proposed acquisitions of financial services businesses in Latin America.
- British United Provident Association, in connection with its acquisition of the Latin American health insurance businesses of the Amedex Insurance Companies.
- Olmeca Investments B.V. and Nautilus Gibraltar SPRL, as financial investors / early-stage sponsors in, and then in connection with their exit as part of a transaction announced in September, 2006 by, Cablemás, S.A. de C.V., the second largest cable television operator in Mexico.
- UBS Limited, as financial advisor to Endesa Internacional, S.A. in connection with the reorganization of Endesa’s assets in Brazil.
- Editorial Expansión, in connection with its sale to Time, Inc.
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