About

Number of years practice: 17 Principal practice areas: Capital markets Bar admissions: Illinois, New York Languages spoken: English, French, Italian and Spanish

Roderick Branch is a partner in the corporate department of Latham & Watkins’ Chicago office, where he focuses on capital markets transactions and securities regulation, with a particular interest in securities offerings by non-US issuers. A native of Mexico City, Branch has an outstanding record in Mexico capital markets offerings. For example, he has advised regular client Infraestructura Energética Nova (IEnova), the largest private-sector energy company in Mexico (by market capitalisation), on its $840m inaugural bond offering on the international capital markets, which obtained some of the most favourable pricing ever achieved by a Mexican corporate when it closed in late 2017. This followed IEnova’s 2016 $1.6bn equity follow-on offering through the Mexican Stock Exchange, the largest equity sale in Latin America that year. Other stand-out matters in the Mexican market include representing Vista Oil & Gas in its $650m IPO, the first special-purpose acquisition company-IPO in Latin American history and the first Mexican Stock Exchange listing by an energy exploration and production-focused company. Currently, Branch is representing Promecap Acquisition Company, a Mexican SPAC sponsored by Promecap and Fernando Chico Pardo, one of the largest private equity firms in Mexico, in its pending $300m IPO. This will be the second SPAC IPO by both a Mexican company and a company organised in Latin America.