About

Number of years practice: 28 Law school attended: Georgetown University Law Center Languages spoken: English Principal practice areas: Project Development Finance Admissions: District of Columbia, New York

Denise Grant has been advising on financing transactions in Mexico for more than 20 years, during which time she has worked with a significant number of Mexican corporates and closely followed the developments in many sectors. She represents a range of clients – including multinational corporations, financial institutions and multilaterals and export credit agencies – in their secured and unsecured private financing activities, as well as advising lenders on political risk insurance matters. Among the many deals she has acted on, highlights include representing Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) in connection with the financing of Mexican multinational food processing and distribution company Sigma’s acquisition of Spanish competitor Campofrio via a tender offer, a deal which marked Sigma’s first move for a Europe-based target. Grant also represented the lead arrangers in connection with the financing of the 2015 merger between Alestra and Axtel, and the lead arrangers involved in multi-billion dollar term loans and revolving facilities for Pemex. Working in the Mexican market has, Grant says, allowed her to stay at the cutting edge of Latin American legal work. ‘Mexico has always been a leader in the region – from the sovereign debt restructurings in the late 1980s, to the privatizations that followed, to the negotiation of NAFTA, to the accessing of the international bank finance markets by many Mexican conglomerates, to the outbound acquisition by Mexican companies of US and European companies and to significant energy reform, Mexico has been at the forefront, with other countries in the region following. It is a dynamic market – one of the original emerging markets that has emerged and matured [with] activity in all sectors.’