What are the most significant private equity deals that you or your team have recently been involved in within the Latin American market?

We recently participated of groundbreaking M&As and financing deals. Below an example of two relevant infrastructure portfolio divestment deals closed this year (2023):

First, the full divestment of Odata (data center provider). Patria Fund III has entered into definitive agreements with Aligned Data Centers. Multi-jurisdictional deal, as the data centres are located in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

Second, the partial divestment of Entrevias (toll road operator in the State of São Paulo) from Patria Fund III to VINCI, a world leader in concessions, energy and construction.

Latin American markets vary widely in terms of economic stability and political dynamics. How do you factor these considerations into your legal strategies and recommendations for private equity clients?

We work together with the private equity investment team since the project inception, in order to identity how the legal, regulatory and institutional framework is placed in each Latin American jurisdiction. The tailor-made analysis takes into consideration the type of business to be pursued and where the assets are located. Our recommendation is based on such in-deep review and includes several factors, such as contracts and law enforceability and dispute resolution precedents.

While this environment will challenge GPs to find new ways to create value and underwrite risk, the long-term outlook for private equity remains fundamentally sound.

What do you find most rewarding and challenging about working as an in-house lawyer specialising in private equity within the Latin American market?

The challenges and rewards are completely interconnected. It is very rewarding to closely work with an excellent private equity team, as well as find and/or consolidate disruptive business to make them more approachable for international investors, with best practices of governance, compliance and risk management. At the same time, it is a major challenge implement these projects, as it requires discipline and continuous monitoring of the private equity portfolio companies. We have excellent precedents of companies that obtained very important anticorruption/compliance recognitions.

Additionally, a major reward is to learn how Latin America frameworks are created and developed for new investments. We constantly share our experience and lessons-learned for a better investment environment in Latin America. Such complex legal and regulatory systems are challenging and require well designed action plans with specific risk mitigations. It is very important to be close to the business to work on innovative solutions.