Dentons Cardenas & Cardenas

Banking and Finance, Coporate, Mergers and Aquisitions

Colombia Managing Partner

Bernardo Cárdenas is Bogotá’s office managing partner whose focus is mainly on the Mergers and Acquisitions and Banking and Finance practices. Major legal directories universally rank him as a top tier lawyer. With more than 30 years of experience, including a period with a leading US law firm, he leads the Mergers and Acquisitions and Banking and Finance teams at the firm. His experience includes some of the most significant transactions and financings in recent Colombian history, such as advising Tyndall Group on the sale of a majority shareholding to Primax S.A. (a Peruvian retailer of gasoline) in Distribuidora Andina de Combustibles (formerly Exxon Mobil Colombia). He also counseled Group Saur (a French company) on the purchase of a majority of the shares of Naunet S.A., a company in the aqueduct and sewage business in the northern area of Colombia. Bernardo acted as local counsel during the issuance of debtor-in-possession (DIP) guaranteed notes by Pacific Exploration & Production Corporation to the current note-holders and Catalyst Capital Group Inc. US$500 million; this was one of the first and certainly the most important cross-border insolvency and financing deals presented before the Colombian authorities and thus, it tested the current cross-border insolvency Colombian regime.

english and spanish

College of Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario Lawyers. College of Mining and Petroleum Lawyers.

New York University, School of Law, 1990, LL.M, Comparative Jurisprudence

Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, 1988, J.D