Eupportunity  Five

Latam countries my role covers: Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil

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

My team and I have been involved in the sale of our coal power plant Pampa Sul in Brazil. ENGIE Brazil Energia (EGIE3) concluded the sale of the Pampa Sul Thermoelectric Plant to Grafito and Perfin Space X, managed by the Starboard and Perfin companies, respectively. The asset has an installed capacity of 345 MW.

We are also involved in an important arbitration file under New York law between our affiliate entity in Chile and the French group Total with respect to a dispute on the LNG deliveries in Chile (Engie as claimant). This file is critical for Chile as the disruption of deliveries of LNG affects the power market in Chile due to the important position of our assets in Chile.

The team is also working hard in assisting the business in Chile with the decarbonisation plan launched by Engie: closing of 0.8GW old coal units and conversion to gas or biomass of 0,7GW by 2025. We are for example, currently involved in materialising the commitment to develop green hydrogen production to produce green ammonia for Enaex in Chile and to produce e-methanol in Brazil.

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?

Engie’s global purpose is to act to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally friendly solutions. Our strategy in the Latin American countries where we are present is to decarbonise our generation assets by either developing large batteries, close coal power plant or converting them to biomass or gas, invest in renewable energy and the production of green hydrogen.

Engie is now organised into four Global Business Units focusing on such strategy implementation (Renewables, Networks, Energy Solutions and Flex Gen and Retail). I am the chief legal officer for the GBU Flex Gen and Retail in addition to being head of group Legal M&A.

As the team is spread in different jurisdictions and does not often work on the same projects, I promote a collaborative model to be part of the same legal community and in the process, ensuring the cohesion of the legal line beyond the change in strategy and management we all had to face.

We made a conscious decision to engage legal advisors who are proficient not only in handling large, centralised projects, but also in addressing legal queries related to smaller energy transition projects. ENGIE Latin America is certainly well-equipped and fully aligned with the strategy and vision of the Group to be a forerunner in the new energy world through co-innovation and partnerships, designing and developing new energy decarbonised models and to improve the lives of people and support growth opportunities for businesses and communities.

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

This energy transition certainly creates challenges as the team needed to divest existing assets, which is never the most motivating transactions, adapting its way of working to develop smaller projects and having to adapt to a new ecosystem. We proved nevertheless to be all motivated as we are all convinced that the transition that our Group is achieving (moving full steam to the energy transition) is the right path and will contribute towards a harmonious development. When recruiting someone, “We always verify whether people are truly believing and inspired by this energy transition and are aligned with the Engie purpose.”

ENGIE has also established a more collaborative approach with ENGIE business development and commercial team, thereby developing a business relationship based on trust, confidence, and highly personalised service. The team is known for being readily accessible, for playing an active and significant role in the project team, and for providing legal answers and solutions that are sensible, pragmatic and commercially responsive.