Team size: 10

Countries in Latam your company operates in/ your role covers: legal and corporate aspects for all of our projects in LATAM

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

Recently I have been involved in setting up of our corporate structure in LATAM and coordinated several acquisition processes of real estate properties to develop our projects having the development value of approximately USD$ 55 m. As these acquisitions were the first acquisitions of UDI Group ever made in LATAM, we had to proceed cautiously and deliberately. At the same time, we needed to acquaint ourselves with local specifics, law, and way of doing business very quickly to successfully complete the acquisitions. Given these circumstances the whole process was challenging and time demanding. As there were travel restrictions in place, we used various online platforms to hold meetings. I must admit the team is proud that these projects were completed.

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?

There is a lot of work to do. Our group would like to continue developing residential projects in Panama City (Panama) and San Jose (Costa Rica), such as completing designs with architects, applying for construction permits and hire general construction supplier and project manager and to commence construction. We also aim finance our projects by banks to have additional financial sources. If the development process is fast, we aim even to start selling residential units. I will be covering the legal and corporate side of these projects.

Simultaneously, we are actively looking for new potential projects in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia with the aim of extending our presence in the region, including hospitality sector. Depending on the future status of the market, we would like to co-operate with foreign investment investors and real estate investment groups. If this happens, we will need to negotiate and close all JV’s structures and related legal matters. Negotiating a JV’s deal is a very dynamic process, it requires knowledge of business and mainly a business orientated approach. I also plan to travel to meet our partners in person more often than before to keep closer and open business relations. I am definitely looking forward to the next months!

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

Generally, it takes time to digest legal specifics of each country. We use market and legal reports of various business and legal advice providers. Then, we set up online meetings to receive comprehensive answers to a lot of our queries. More less we rely on advice of our local legal advisors and our commonsense, since principles of developing projects are very similar in European and LATAM countries at the end of the day.

Personally, I found process of understanding of region specifics as very interesting and challenging at the same time. This is what I like the most.