Salaverri, Burgio & Wetzler Malbran

Managing Partner: Diego Salaverri

Number of partners:12

Number of other lawyers:13

Firm Overview:

Salaverri, Burgio & Wetzler Malbrán is one of the leading business law firms in Argentina, with a reputation for providing sophisticated and high quality legal services in both local and international matters. The firm is widely recognised for its expertise in M&A, private equity, capital markets, banking and financing, restructuring and insolvency, and dispute resolution. The partners of the firm have consistently been counsel of choice for many leading local and international private equity funds, corporations and financial institutions. In the past, and since the firm’s inception in 2012, SBWM has handled several of the most complex cross-border and domestic transactions and legal proceedings in Argentina, including many landmark deals and disputes.

The firm is committed to providing high value added legal advice and innovative solutions to its clients. For such purposes and for each matter trusted to the firm, SBWM assembles teams of seasoned, multi-practice lawyers — many of whom have gained significant expertise from tenures at leading New York based global firms — with a high partner-to-associate ratio.

Main Areas of Practice

Banking & Finance:

SBWM represents international and local lenders and borrowers in all kind of financings, including acquisitions finance, leveraged buyout finance, project finance and equity investments. The firm’s clients include local and international banks, and some of the country’s most active companies, such as the Pampa Energía Group and Grupo Albanesi, which have been represented by SBWM in a number of sophisticated financings, including high profile acquisition finance and project finance transactions in the energy sectors. SBWM has been repeatedly engaged by its private equity clients to leverage some of their most significant acquisitions, and by market-leading financial institutions to advise them on cross-border and local, secured and unsecured, syndicated and non-syndicated credit facilities.

Capital Markets:

SBWM has extensive experience in securities law, regularly representing leading financial institutions, broker dealers and corporate issuers in local and international equity and debt offerings, being active both on the issuer and in the lender side of different transactions. For instance, on the issuer side, the firm recently represented Capex and Pampa Energía on their 144-A / Reg S note exchange offerings. On the lender and broker dealer side, the firm recently represented firms such as JP Morgan, HSBC, BofAML, Citibank and Santander in the exchange offers by AES Generación and by Generación Mediterránea. The firm also advised Generación Mediterránea and Generación Litoral (both members of Grupo Albanesi) in first-of-a-kind project finance transactions involving issuance of secured limited recourse notes. The firm also regularly advises financial institutions, broker dealers and issuers in public debt transactions and restructurings by sovereign and cuasi-sovereign issuers, such as the dealer managers in the restructuring of the international notes of the Province of Buenos Aires, the Province of Mendoza, and the Province of Córdoba.

Dispute Resolution:

The firm handles civil, commercial and administrative/ regulatory litigation, national and international arbitration, with specific focus on complex cases. The firm’s team draws significant experience from tenures at national courts and has earned a reputation for their innovative strategies and business-oriented approach. Our dispute resolution lawyers are also involved in corporate and commercial advisory and transactional matters. By getting involved at the early stages of contract drafting and negotiation, the team can offer unique insight into contentious situations further down the line. We have been involved in some of the most significant litigation proceedings of the last decade, and we still have major matters in process.

Insolvency/Debt Restructuring:

SBWM’s partners played a significant role in the debt restructurings of the principal Argentine private sector borrowers that took place after the devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2002, including proceedings involving Telecom, Edenor, Cablevisión, Multicanal, Transener, Fargo, Havanna, OCA, CIESA and Interbaires. More recently, the firm represented financial creditors in the reorganisation proceedings of Metrogas and its controlling shareholder, Gas Argentino. Also, the team is deeply involved (creditors’ side) in restructuring proceedings. Our representation of Edenor S.A. (currently credit assigned to SBS CREAURBAN DESARROLLO FONDO COMÚN DE INVERSIÓN CERRADO INMOBILIARIO) against the high-profile real estate developer, Ribera Desarrollos S.A., which defaulted its obligation to construct an office building and deliver the units that would have been Edenor’s main headquarters. Our client is the main creditor of the most important real state reorganization proceedings in Argentine history. Our work has been decisive in this reorganization proceedings.

Mergers & Acquisitions/Private Equity:

The firm´s seven-partner Corporate/M&A team has extensive experience in acting for both local and international clients in sophisticated, cross-border corporate transactions. In particular, our team has led several multi-jurisdictional Latin American M&A and private equity deals along with New York based firms, and counselled international clients in acquisitions in other Latin American countries, drawing on its legal expertise and on a deep understanding of both legal and cultural backgrounds throughout the region.— Among many others, the firm has acted as lead counsel to Arca Continental in its acquisition of the US Southwest Coca-Cola Bottling Business Unit and the creation of a joint venture with The Coca-Cola Company to operate all of Arca Continental’s beverage businesses. Other work includes Southern Cross Group’s investments in Ultrapetrol and Estrella International Energy Services Arca Continental and counseling The Coca-Cola Company in their joint acquisition of a controlling interest in Holding Tonicorp in Ecuador and Corporación Lindley in Perú, and in a corporate restructuring regarding its South American joint ventures SBWM also advises international clients as lead counsel in other jurisdictions such as Africa and Europe.

In Argentina, the team has represented leading strategic and private equity players, as well as financial institutions, in several of the largest and most complex M&As that took place since Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, including, among others, acquisitions of controlling or significant equity stakes in Pampa Energía, Petrobras Argentina, Edenor and TGS. Also, the team has been actively involved in divestitures carried-out by clients, such as Southern Cross Group’s sale of its indirect controlling interest in CGC, Edenor’s sale of its indirect controlling interest in several electricity distribution companies, Pampa Energía in the sale of a co-controlling interest in TGS and of its downstream business.

Public & Administrative Law:

The firm provides advice on general administrative law (including administrative litigation) and specific regulatory regimes such as electricity (including renewal energy, generation, transmission and distribution), oil and gas (including upstream, midstream and downstream), infrastructure and public works. The firm has also successfully represented clients in public bids.

Languages:

English, French, German, Spanish.

Clients:

Representative clients include, among others, Pampa Energía,Transportadora de Gas del Sur, Transener, Arca Continental, Grupo Dolphin, Southern Cross Group, The Coca-Cola Company, General Electric, Orígenes (METLIFE), J. P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Credit Suisse, BofAML, UBS, BST, HSBC, Metrogas (Chile), Bank of China, the Albanesi Group, Cocos Capital, Unblock, SACDE and Warner Media.