Arias

Government Affairs and International Relations, Banking, Finance and Insurance, Compliance, Anti-money Laundering and Anti-corruption, Project and Infrastructure, Finance, FinTech, Public Infrastructure and Public Private Partnerships

Partner

Diego Gallegos heads the Baking and Finance practice in Arias Costa Rica.  For over a decade, Diego has excelled as an asset and corporate finance specialist. He has a proven ability to guide businesses and their lenders towards their financial goals across diverse sectors.  This comprehensive background positions him to navigate the intricacies of large-scale financing for a wide range of clients.  Diego´s department consistently works in project finance, restructuring and insolvency, fintech, regulatory work, capital markets, and corporate law transactions.

Diego's experience spans complex, cross-border finance transactions. He has represented prestigious institutions like Bank of America, IDB Invest, FMO, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Proparco and Deutsche Bank, among many others.

Valued for his deep financial knowledge and client-centric approach, Diego Gallegos tailors solutions to achieve specific needs, making him a trusted advisor for international clients and institutions.

He rejoined Arias in 2017 after pursuing his LL.M degree at Columbia University and holding positions in the Washington D.C. offices of Chadbourne & Parke LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). There, Diego specialized in project finance transactions, infrastructure projects and advisory work on political risk mitigation and FDI attraction.

His recent work experience in Arias includes:

- Represented IFC (International Finance Corporation) in a US$ 150,000,000.00 facility to Ransa Corp. S.L. and subsidiaries.

- Represented Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator in the Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreement (ERPA) between Emergent and the Republic of Costa Rica for the purchase of carbon credits.

- Represented Enfragen as sponsor and purchaser in the acquisition and financing of their first wind power plant in Costa Rica from Celsia.

- Represented FMO in a US$ 23,000,000.00 financing to Volcafe Limited, a leading global green coffee merchant, to strengthen the company’s operations in Costa Rica and support thousands of coffee farmers in the country.

- Lenders’ Counsel in the US$ 54,374,978.00 acquisition financing by H.I.G. Capital of several entities engaged in the logistics business in Latin America.

- Represented Sustainable Ocean Fund in working capital financing to boost the borrower´s sustainable aquaculture practices.

- Represented several financial institutions as Lenders in the financing of a loan in the aggregate amount of US$320,000,000 to BIOMERICS, LLC.

- Represented Truist Bank in US$ 415,000,000.00 loan facility to Evertec Group LLC.

- Represented Japan International Cooperation Agency (“JICA”) in a US$15,000,000 loan to a local bank.

Spanish, English

Bar Admissions: New York (2016) and Costa Rica (2013) International Bar Association (IBA)

Law degree from Universidad of Costa Rica. LL.M, Columbia Law School.