LATINLAWYER has announced the winners of its annual ‘Deal of the Year Awards’ for 2009.
There are five winning deals, one for each category: M&A, corporate finance, project finance, disputes, and restructuring. There are also two runners-up for each category.
LATINLAWYER congratulates the counsel, both in-house and in law firms, working on those deals. A list of the law firms and in-house teams for the winning deals is below.
THE WINNERS
M&A CATEGORY
Winner: Votarantim-Aracruz merger
Runners-up: Brescia acquires Lafarge’s Chilean assets
The sale of Costa Rican airport operator, Alterra Partners Costa Rica
CORPORATE FINANCE CATEGORY
Winner: Santander Brasil’s IPO
Runners-up: Ecopetrol’s US$1.5 billion debut global debt offering
Banco de Crédito del Perú’s Tier 1 bond issuance
PROJECT FINANCE CATEGORY
Winner: Panama Canal expansion financing
Runners-up: Pecém’s billion dollar loan
Manzanillo secures Japanese-Korean financing
RESTRUCTURING CATEGORY
Winner: Gruma’s derivative restructuring
Runners-up: Santelisa Vale restructuring facilitates takeover
TGN’s restructuring
DISPUTES CATEGORY
Winner: Aguaytia Energy v Peru
Runners-up: FASA admits price fixing
Nicaraguan and Costa Rican river rights established
An awards dinner for the counsel working on all three deals in each category will be held on Thursday 11 March in São Paulo at the Hotel Unique at 8:00pm. Anyone interested in attending should e-mail here.
Counsel on the winning deals:
M&A CATEGORY - Votarantim-Aracruz merger
Counsel to Votorantim Celulose e Papel
In-house counsel - Alexandre D′′Ambrosio
TozziniFreire Advogados, Motta, Fernandes Rocha – Advogados and Aires Barreto in Brazil; Shearman & Sterling LLP in the US
Counsel to the Safra Group
In-house counsel - Daniel Pita
Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, Pompeu, Longo, Kignel & Cipullo Advogados and sole practitioner Helio Nicoleti in Brazil; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in the US
Counsel to Arapar
Barbosa Mussnich & Aragao
CORPORATE FINANCE CATEGORY - Santander Brasil’s IPO
Counsel to Santander Brasil
In-house counsel - Marco Antônio Martins de Araújo Filho, Pablo Castilla Peraraz, Rodrigo Zago, Luciana Beraldo and Flavia Pace
Pinheiro Neto Advogados in Brazil and Davis Polk & Wardwell in the US
Counsel to the banks
In-house counsel to Santander – Mara Regina Lima Alves Garcia, Rodrigo Zago and Mercedes Pacheo
In-house counsel to Credite Suisse – Conrad Rubin, Sunil Hosmane, Luis Massud and Rodolfo Lima
In-house counsel to Merril Lynch – André Aulus Teixeira and Fiona Tsu
In-house counsel to Banco Pactual – Leandro Micotti, Bruno Duque and Fabio Federici
Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados in Brazil and Shearman & Sterling LLP in the US
PROJECT FINANCE CATEGORY – Panama Canal financing
Counsel to Panama Canal Authority
In-house counsel – Alvaro Cabal
Shearman & Sterling LLP in the US and Galindo, Arias & López in Panama
Counsel to the lenders
In-house counsel to IFC - Carloine Kahn
In-house counsel to IDB - Leif Weizman
In-house counsel to CAF - Americo Lorenzo
In-house counsel to EIB - Donald Fitzpatrick
In house counsel to JBIC – Matthew O’Connor
Clifford Chance LLP in the US and Morgan & Morgan in Panama
RESTRUCTURING - Gruma’s derivative restructuring
Counsel to Gruma
In-house counsel - Salvador Vargas Guajardo and Rodrigo Martinez Villareal
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in the US and Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes SC in Mexico
Counsel to an ad hoc committee of Gruma’s derivative creditors
In-house counsel to JPMorgan Chase - Eileen Shin
In-house counsel to Bank of America Merrill Lynch - Lily Chang
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in the US and White & Case SC in Mexico
Counsel to Gruma’s bank creditors
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in the US and Ritch Mueller SC in Mexico
DISPUTES CATEGORY - Aguaytia Energy v Peru
Arbitral panel
Robert Briner, president (Swiss)
J William Rowley QC (Canadian)
Claus von Wobeser (Mexican)
Counsel for Aguaytia Energy
In-house counsel - Dean Moesser
Vinson & Elkins LLP in the UK and the US, and Maldonado & Maldonado in Argentina
Counsel to the Republic of Peru
White & Case LLP in the US and Estudio Echecopar in Peru
Methodology
Submissions for Deal of the Year were accepted from any law firm or company wishing to nominate a transaction. LATINLAWYER′′s editorial team compiled shortlists of up to six transactions per category, and where necessary, shortlists were presented to expert panels of lawyers not working on the transactions they were asked to consider. We publish the results in February to allow firms to report deals closing in the later part of 2009.
(Latin Lawyer 11.02.2010)
(Notícia na Íntegra)
