Category: News

Affinitas firms received top recognition from Latin American Corporate Counsel Association (LACCA) in its landmark annual research “Who Represents Latin America’s Biggest Companies in 2022?”.

Barros & Errázuriz, Gómez-Pinzón, Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes and Miranda & Amado have been recognized among the most popular law firms in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, respectively, highlighting their representation of several of the 100-top earning companies in the region.

Our team represented 37 of Latin America’s largest companies, spanning a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, telecoms, food and drinks, agribusiness, energy, petrochemicals, retail and mining and metals.

Each year, LACCA conducts detailed research into which law firms advise Latin America’s largest 100 companies, as ranked by revenue, and spotlights firms that were the most sought-after among companies across the region.

For a full list of the 2023 results, click here.

Affinitas member firms Barros & Errázuriz, Gómez-Pinzón, Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes and Miranda & Amado have been nominated in the top-line National Law Firms of the Year award category for Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, respectively.

Furthermore, our member firms advised on the following six shortlisted deals of the year:

Debt and Equity-Linked Deal of the Year

• Salaverry Port B-Bond: Miranda & Amado advised Citibank as trustee and collateral agent in the refinancing granted by IDB Invest to Salaverry Terminal Internacional for the aggregate amount of USD 115 million.

Private Equity Deal of the Year

• Stonepeak/Lumen Technologies Latin American business: Barros & Errázuriz, Gómez-Pinzón and Miranda & Amado advised on the USD 2.7 billion acquisition of Lumen Technologies’ Latin American business by US private equity company Stonepeak.
• Global Infrastructure Partners/Atlas Renewable Energy: Barros & Errázuriz and Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes advised on Global Infrastructure Partners’ (GIP) acquisition of Latin American renewable energy developer Atlas from UK private equity group Actis. Our Chilean member firm advised Scotiabank, BNP Paribas and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in the coordination and issuance of a Green Loan Credit Facility in favor of Global Infrastructure Partners, for the acquisition of the Atlas companies and its renewable energy portfolio and certain intercompany loans. This transaction is relevant to the industry due to the materiality of Atlas’ portfolio within the international renewable energy project.

Project Finance Deal of the Year

• Puerto Antioquia: Gómez-Pinzón advised C.I. Uniban and Agrícola Santamaría, as Sponsors, in the project for the development of Puerto Antioquia in the Gulf of Urabá. The financing included the execution of several loan agreements linked by a NY law USD 200,000,000 offshore common terms agreement and a Colombian law USD 193,700,000 onshore common terms agreement, involving the participation of local and international financial institutions.

Restructuring Deal of the Year

• LATAM Airlines Group: Barros & Errázuriz represented LATAM’s stakeholder Delta Airlines in LATAM Airlines’ exit from its Chapter 11 proceedings, which put an end to a landmark cross-border restructuring that began over two years ago.

Securitization and Structured Finance Deal of the Year

• CFG Partners asset-backed acquisition financing: Gómez – Pinzón acted as local counsel to Ares Agent Services, LLP in the granting of a credit facility to CFG Partners and its affiliates in Latin America. This credit facility consists of several stages that culminate with the purchase of the eligible credits owned (initially) by Alpha and the origination of new payroll loans in accordance with the rules set forth in the Credit Agreement.

The IFLR Americas awards celebrate legally innovative cross-border transactions across the Americas that “set precedents, broke new ground, added to the legal toolkit, and brought clarity to regulatory frameworks.” The winners will be announced on May 18. For more information, click here.

Mexican member firm Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes is pleased to announce the designation of two new partners, effective July 1st, 2023. Luis Pablo Ramírez and Armando Elsharkawy have been appointed partners of the Litigation/Arbitration and Tax practice areas, respectively.

In this way, the firm is now made up of 24 partners, 4 counsels and more than 100 professionals covering more than 20 practice areas.

“We are thrilled to have invited Luis Pablo and Armando to this new stage of their professional life, who over the years have shown that they have the knowledge, integrity and ethics that represent the kind of professionals we are looking for. These appointments not only reflect our Firm’s culture of promoting talent and motivating our collaborators to achieve their objectives, but also reflect our commitment to grow our teams according to the needs of our clients to guarantee the highest standards of quality and provide comprehensive services,” said Pablo Mijares, one of the firm´s founding partners.

Luis Pablo has more than fifteen years of experience in different areas of the litigation practice, with an emphasis in administrative litigation. He has represented multiple clients of our firm in different types of litigation and contentious proceedings before local, state and federal authorities. He also has wide experience in commercial arbitration; he has participated as counsel in several international and domestic arbitration proceedings on behalf of our clients.

Armando has more than fifteen years of experience in tax consultancy related to transactions for national and multinational enterprises, particularly for real estate and infrastructure projects, M&A, corporate and tax restructures, financing projects, specific investment projects, securitizations, as well as consultancy related to the application of double taxation treaties and anti-abuse regulations, among others.