About

Number of years practice: 20 Principal practice areas: Corporate and securities (with a particular focus on the energy sector) Bar admissions: New York, Argentina Languages spoken: English and Spanish

In 2015, Mayer Brown ramped-up its activity in Mexico with the establishment of an office in Mexico City. As co-head of the firm’s corporate and M&A practice, Houston-based Pablo Ferrante is increasingly active in Mexico, where his expertise in energy-related matters has come to the fore. His practice focuses primarily on domestic and international corporate and energy projects and transactions, and he has extensive experience representing energy companies in regional and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, as well as in the development of energy infrastructure projects. He is particularly recognised for his representation of the purchasers and sellers of energy companies and assets in private acquisition and divestiture transactions. His recent mandates include leading Colombia’s state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol, on its two successful bids for securing production-sharing contracts for the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons in two shallow-water oil-and-gas blocks in Mexico, as part of Bid Round 2.1 conducted by Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission; the transaction marks Ecopetrol’s entry into the Mexican market. Other matters include advising Japanese firm Mitsui on its acquisition of a participating interest in the Kaikias and Circius offshore oil-and-gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico; and representing lenders in loan transactions with borrowers located in Mexico as well as other Latin American countries, including trade finance transactions guaranteed by the US Export-Import Bank.