LATAM countries your role covers: 28 countries

What are the most significant cases and transactions in the LATAM region that you or your legal team have recently been involved in?

Broadly speaking, the team is heavily involved in all transactions and matters related with Latin America. The work includes business and strategic advice to Leadership team work namely on major ownership restructurings and transfers, as well as negotiation of agreements with new partners or renegotiating new terms with current partners.

In terms of transactions, recently, we completed a significant transaction for the Latin American. In this transaction, one of our existing Franchisees purchased the entire operation of another retiring Franchisee. This transaction facilitated the existing Franchisees efforts to continue to grow and strengthen the brand in the country.

What are your organisations plans in the LATAM region over the next 12 months and how will your legal expertise help to achieve these plans?

The organization has significant growth and development plans for Latin America over the next 12 months – including new store openings and reimages by our Franchisees. The Legal Team, as part of the Latin America’s Leadership Team, will be involved and working on all strategic and business decisions in order to implement the growth plans for the region. The fact that we have vast experience working in the region is key in supporting the implementation of those business plans. Finally, we developed, through the years, a network of partners in the region which will certainly help us navigate the legal challenges on the implementation of our plans.

How do you adapt your legal counselling to align with the diverse business practices and customs of various LATAM countries?

The legal counselling is always aligned with the overall business strategy for the region. Based on that, prior to rolling-out any specific projects, we tend to do an exhaustive review of each of the regions in order to define what the main red-flags for implementation and subsequent implementation timelines and action items will be.