About

Number of years practice: 26 Law school attended: New York University School of Law Languages spoken: English and Spanish Principal practice areas: Corporate Finance, M&A Admissions: New Jersey, New York

Throughout his career, Howard Kleinman has been active in helping Latin American companies to access capital from the US. His practice focuses on capital markets and financial transactions in Latin America and sees him regularly represent domestic and foreign issuers, underwriters, and others in equity and debt offerings, including US registered public offerings and offerings under Rule 144A private placements. He has been a partner in the corporate and securities group at Dechert since 2009 and has worked on some of the initial capital markets transactions by a number of Mexico’s leading companies, including GRUMA, Banorte and Grupo Industrial Saltillo. His work acting as underwriters’ counsel includes representing Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital as underwriters in the $282m global public offering by Mexican financial services company Grupo Financiero Interacciones in 2013 and HSBC, Citigroup, BBVA and Itaú BBA as underwriters in the $460m global offering by Mexican-based Alsea, a Latin America regional operator of a number of fast-food brands including Domino’s Pizza, Starbucks and Burger King. He has also represented a number of Mexican clients on M&A matters, including advising Compañía Perforadora de México (PEMSA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grupo México, in five acquisitions of jackup rigs and drilling platforms, for a total value or around $1bn, for use in oil exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Before joining Dechert, Kleinman was part of the team that represented the Mexican government on the issuance of catastrophe bonds, the first time that a sovereign in Latin America had been a primary beneficiary of this type of security. He has also worked on a number of significant restructuring transactions, including the lengthy and highly publicized debt restructuring of Mexican glassmaker Vitro.