12/02/2010 - LATINLAWYER announces Deal of the Year winners
There are five winning deals, one for each category: M&A, corporate finance, project finance, disputes, and restructuring. There are also two runners-up for each category.

LATINLAWYER congratulates the counsel, both in-house and in law firms, working on those deals. A list of the law firms and in-house teams for the winning deals is below.

THE WINNERS

M&A CATEGORY
Winner: Votorantim-Aracruz merger
Runners-up: Brescia acquires Lafarge’s Chilean assets
The sale of Costa Rican airport operator, Alterra Partners Costa Rica

CORPORATE FINANCE CATEGORY
Winner: Santander Brasil’s IPO
Runners-up: Ecopetrol’s US$1.5 billion debut global debt offering
Banco de Crédito del Perú’s Tier 1 bond issuance

PROJECT FINANCE CATEGORY
Winner: Panama Canal expansion financing
Runners-up: Pecém’s billion dollar loan
Manzanillo secures Japanese-Korean financing

RESTRUCTURING CATEGORY
Winner: Gruma’s derivative restructuring
Runners-up: Santelisa Vale restructuring facilitates takeover
TGN’s restructuring

DISPUTES CATEGORY
Winner: Aguaytia Energy v Peru
Runners-up: FASA admits price fixing
Nicaraguan and Costa Rican river rights established
Counsel on the winning deals:

M&A CATEGORY - Votorantim-Aracruz merger

Counsel to Votorantim Celulose e Papel
In-house counsel - Alexandre D'Ambrosio and Eduardo Andretto represented Votorantim;Eduardo Russo represented VCP
TozziniFreire Advogados, Motta, Fernandes Rocha – Advogados and Aires Barreto in Brazil; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in the US
Counsel to the Safra Group
In-house counsel - Daniel Pita

Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, Pompeu, Longo, Kignel & Cipullo Advogados and sole practitioner Helio Nicoleti in Brazil; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in the US

Counsel to Arapar

Barbosa Mussnich & Aragao
Counsel to Aracruz
In-house counsel - Jose Luiz Braga and Euridice Mason
Wald e Associados Advogados in litigation and administrative procedures
Wald e Associados also provided counsel to VCP and Aracruz in compliance with the corporations law dealing with minority shareholders rights and CVM regulation.

CORPORATE FINANCE CATEGORY - Santander Brasil’s IPO

Counsel to Santander Brasil
In-house counsel - Marco Antônio Martins de Araújo Filho, Pablo Castilla Peraraz, Rodrigo Zago, Luciana Beraldo and Flavia Pace

Pinheiro Neto Advogados in Brazil and Davis Polk & Wardwell in the US

Counsel to the banks
In-house counsel to Santander – Mara Regina Lima Alves Garcia, Rodrigo Zago and Mercedes Pacheo
In-house counsel to Credite Suisse – Conrad Rubin, Sunil Hosmane, Luis Massud and Rodolfo Lima
In-house counsel to Merril Lynch – André Aulus Teixeira and Fiona Tsu
In-house counsel to Banco Pactual – Leandro Micotti, Bruno Duque and Fabio Federici

Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados in Brazil and Shearman & Sterling LLP in the US

PROJECT FINANCE CATEGORY – Panama Canal financing

Counsel to Panama Canal Authority
In-house counsel – Alvaro Cabal

Shearman & Sterling LLP in the US and Galindo, Arias & López in Panama

Counsel to the lenders
In-house counsel to IFC - Carloine Kahn
In-house counsel to IDB - Leif Weizman
In-house counsel to CAF - Americo Lorenzo
In-house counsel to EIB - Donald Fitzpatrick
In house counsel to JBIC – Matthew O’Connor

Clifford Chance LLP in the US and Morgan & Morgan in Panama


RESTRUCTURING - Gruma’s derivative restructuring

Counsel to Gruma

In-house counsel - Salvador Vargas Guajardo and Rodrigo Martinez Villareal

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in the US and Mijares, Angoitia, Cortés y Fuentes SC in Mexico

Counsel to an ad hoc committee of Gruma’s derivative creditors

In-house counsel to JPMorgan Chase - Eileen Shin
In-house counsel to Bank of America Merrill Lynch - Lily Chang

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in the US and White & Case SC in Mexico

Counsel to Gruma’s bank creditors

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in the US and Ritch Mueller SC in Mexico


DISPUTES CATEGORY - Aguaytia Energy v Peru

Arbitral panel
Robert Briner, president (Swiss)
J William Rowley QC (Canadian)
Claus von Wobeser (Mexican)

Counsel for Aguaytia Energy
In-house counsel - Dean Moesser

Vinson & Elkins LLP in the UK and the US, and Maldonado & Maldonado in Argentina

Counsel to the Republic of Peru
White & Case LLP in the US and Estudio Echecopar in Peru

Methodology
Submissions for Deal of the Year were accepted from any law firm or company wishing to nominate a transaction. LATINLAWYER's editorial team compiled shortlists of up to six transactions per category, and where necessary, shortlists were presented to expert panels of lawyers not working on the transactions they were asked to consider. We publish the results in February to allow firms to report deals closing in the later part of 2009.

Fonte: LatinLawyer OnLine