About

With ‘versatility, depth and an extraordinary comprehension of the agro-export business’, the ‘dynamic’ José Castelli is head of legal, insurance and corporate governance at diversified commodities and agribusiness group, Bunge, where his responsibilities cover Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. ‘An extraordinarily talented lawyer’, ‘José is the type of in-house lawyer that you wish, as an outside counsel, to interact with when facing sophisticated issues’. ‘In addition to his solid legal knowledge and his great knowledge of international transactions, he has a fine capacity for dialogue with his counterparts so as to achieve mutually beneficial agreements’. ‘Perhaps his first virtue’, says one advocate, is that ‘he wears his team’s colours’, ‘fiercely defending his company’s interests as if they were his own. During his interventions, he doesn’t only take care of the legal aspects of the contracts he negotiates, but also manages to obtain the maximum economic and commercial advantages for Bunge’. ‘Totally committed and completely at one with the objectives and business of the company’, something that has won him both internal recognition and the respect of his colleagues, he’s also characterised as ‘straightforward and open, something which facilitates relations with his peers and working in a team’ and as ‘an efficient coach to the capable professionals in his team’. In addition to day-to-day and transactional matters, one major challenge he has had to deal with is the prolonged offensive by the Argentine tax authority AFIP against the agribusiness industry, utilizing an amendment of transfer pricing rules that dated back to 2003, and exacerbated with the implementation of law 26.351 (also known as Ley Martínez Raymonda), in 2008. Teijeiro & Ballone’s Guillermo Teijeiro comments: ‘throughout all this, José showed the expertise of a seasoned corporate lawyer dealing with areas of law which are not his primary concern; he did it superbly, adding his sound perspective to the input of outside experts. Beyond the intricacies of his specialities, he always showed a clear view of the company’s corporate, operating and business approaches, thus contributing to the decision-taking process with a solid basis on those crucial aspects’. Among other more recent matters, he has been busy in Paraguay, where he led on the structuring of the Complejo Agroindustrial Angostura (CAIASA) joint venture with Louis Dreyfus, a $200m soya mill and port facility in Angostura, Paraguay, which opened in late 2013; and also the establishment of a shipping company, Tio Kike.