Chambers Commentary — Banking & Finance
The banking and finance team at this firm has enjoyed considerable success and a fantastic workload of late, with highlights including its advice on a USD1.1 billion financing for the Quintero LNG project. Roberto Guerrero led the team in that deal, and wins client respect as a top-notch transactional lawyer who always delivers. Sebastián Yunge advised on a USD60 million short-term debt issuance, and clients recommend him for his consistent focus on their needs. Jorge Delpiano is an experienced practitioner with a great reputation for his work in regulated M&A and project finance. New partner José Miguel Ried is renowned for his negotiating skills and strategic thinking.
Chambers Commentary — Corporate/M&A
Clients speak highly of this prestigious firm, noting “the team’s great connections and the good relationships its partners have with the best universities in the country.” Roberto Guerrero is vice-dean of the school of law at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile but still maintains a top-quality corporate practice, as evidenced by his representation of Anglo American on its USD140 million sale of a 50% participation in the ownership of a Chilean gold mine. Jorge Delpiano has had a tremendous year, leading Telefónica through a USD942 million acquisition of 55% of CTC’s shares. Gonzalo Delaveau has established himself as a reliable and skilled practitioner in corporate, M&A and energy-related matters.
Chambers Commentary — Energy & Natural Resources
This firm enjoys long-standing prestige in the Chilean market and is a regular player in the energy sector. Major recent projects have included the acquisition, development and approval of 12 hydroelectric projects on behalf of Idroenergia, and counselling several lenders on environment and regulatory matters concerning the GNL Quintero project. Sources highlight Gonzalo Delaveau as an active and accomplished practitioner. The team can also draw on the experience and leadership skills of senior figures in the firm such as Roberto Guerrero. A new entrant to the ranking, Pedro Lyon is strongly praised for his fierce dedication to his clients’ business needs.
Chambers Commentary - Intellectual Property
Garay Guerrero
Guerrero, Olivos, Novoa y Errázuriz strategic alliance with IP boutique Harnecker has been disrupted by divisions at the latter. Despite the loss of the Harnecker name and technical staff to a rival, Guerrero Olivos has maintained its association with the boutique’s legal team - now reincorporated as Garay Guerrero - and hence retained much of its capacity in the sector. Jorge Garay leads the team and can “draw on years of experience working at the highest levels.” Felipe Garay has a reputation as a hard-working, diligent attorney who “really focuses on his clients’ needs.” The team is particularly known for its expertise in the pharmaceutical sector, where it has advised a host of multinational companies. Areas of expertise include patents, trade marks, copyrights, utility models, plant varieties and domain names.
Chambers Commentary — TAX
Sebastián Guerrero of Guerrero Olivos, Novoa, Errázuriz is well known in corporate circles and, as a professor of tax law at Universidad Finis Terrae, he can offer clients a wealth of knowledge and strategic tax advice.
Chambers Commentary — TMT
Juan Allard leads this notable TMT practice, which recently advised Telefónica Multimedia on the launch of its paid TV system. The team regularly advises a host of companies on issues such as personal data, Internet law and VoIP, as well as providing excellent corporate, regulatory and tax advice for clients in the telecoms and technology sectors.
Growing success for banking player
Established: 1980
Partners: 12
Lawyers: 43
This year, Guerrero Olivos landed some of Chile’s largest banking and M&A transactions - the firm’s two driving forces. The partnership of this full service firm has achieved strength in breadth with well-considered strategic lateral hires over the years, which, with its international air, has created a serious contender to the country’s more established firms.
PRACTICES: Banking and finance work has long been a core expertise here, and that remains the case, with success in project finance work in particular. Their M&A practice, while possibly less renowned, is nonetheless both experienced and very visible in the marketplace. Energy is a noted expertise, with gas and electricity work prominent of late, and the depth of the firm’s natural resources team is also to be admired, particularly its expertise in water rights. The IP practice area took a hit when the technical and professional staff of heavyweight IP boutique Harnecker, with which it formed an alliance in 2007, merged with another firm - although the lawyers still work with Guerrero Olivos.
PEOPLE: Roberto Guerrero V is increasingly the driver of the firm and largely credited in the market with spearheading a gradual but sure renewal of the firm and its reputation. He is also a widely respected finance lawyer, with notable success this year on the project finance front; he “permanently provides very original solutions to any problem that their clients may propose,” says one of those clients. Another welcomes his availability and responsiveness. With a broad corporate practice is Jorge Delpiano, notable for his M&A work in particular but far from exclusively. For energy and natural resources work Gonzalo Delaveau (“a first-class professional with sharp commercial acumen,” says one client) is highly regarded in the field, with expertise in gas and electricity in particular. The three newest partners, Sebastián Guerrero (now into his third year of partnership and charged with deepening the firm’s tax service offer), Sebastián Yunge and Cristián Fabres all have top-flight international experience, are frequently seen at the head of deal teams and seem more than prepared to carry on the firm’s renewal. Senior partners Roberto Guerrero D, Carlos Olivos and Hernán Felipe Errázuriz are widely respected figures each with noted public posts on their CVs - Guerrero as Rector of the Universidad Finis Terrae; Olivos at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; and Errázuriz as chairman of Chile’s Central Bank, minister of mining, ambassador to Washington, DC and foreign affairs minister. One client says of the latter: “he offers comprehensive advice over political issues and their influence on sensitive contractual topics.”
CLIENTS: Banks, particularly Santander, with which the firm has a good relationship, utilities companies such as Compañía General de Electricidad, which uses the firm across a number of practice areas, and energy groups like Canada’s March are prominent on client lists. Guerrero Olivos also counts a number of Chile’s notably active pension funds as clients. One European corporate client praises the firm for “thorough research” and “good communication skills” while a client in the power sector notes “strong teamwork, giving support in all areas”.
PRO BONO: The firm’s pro bono policy sees each lawyer offering an admirable 40 hours a year. Santiago’s clearing house recognised the firm as one of two law firms of the year for their contribution to pro bono work in Chile during 2009.
ALLIANCES & NETWORKS: The alliance formed in 2007 with IP boutique Harnecker dissolved this year, as a group of 35 professional and technical staff joined Carey y Cia. Guerrero Olivos formed Garay Guerrero with the former Harnecker lawyers, none of whom followed the technical team. The firm is also a member of TAGLaw.
2009 DEVELOPMENTS: This year saw the firm say goodbye to the highly regarded Jimena Bronfman, who left the firm to practice independently. The firm kept the balance in the partnership by promoting José Miguel Ried, who focuses on corporate law and capital markets work.
Roberto Guerrero V represented Anglo American when it sold its stake in Chile’s Marte-Lobo gold project to Kinross for US$260 million, and he and Cristián Fabres were retained by Transbank, Redbanc and Nexus for their experience on contract negotiations during the consolidation of the three credit card operators’ databases.
Sebastián Yunge has had a busy year in finance work - not least in negotiating, on behalf of lender JP Morgan, the Chilean section of a US$10 billion global financing deal for Canadian mining company Teck as part of its bid to buy fellow Canadian group Fording. He also acted for Banco de Crédito e Inversiones and Banco Itaú Chile as the banks agreed a US$80 million refinancing of a project to construct and commission a power station. Fabres has also worked on finance transactions, advising a private fund owned by Sociedad de Inversiones Norte Sur in buying US$455 million in non-performing loans from Banco Santander. He has had a good run of capital markets work too, assisting securities business Bci Securitizadora as deal manager for debt issuances by Chilean retailers; when Falabella raised US$170 million through an offering of revolving bonds; and in La Polar’s US$70 million issuance. He also teamed up with José Gabriel Undurraga to help Peru’s largest bank, Banco de Crédito del Perú, issue bonds worth US$105 million in Chile, becoming the country’s second company to issue Huaso bonds (Chile’s equivalent to Yankee bonds). Sebastián Guerrero was deal counsel to Chilean agribusiness Empresas Carozzi’s US$126 million issuance of local bonds.
The firm’s capital markets work was not limited to debt issuances. Gonzalo Delaveau and José Miguel Ried worked on Chile’s first IPO of 2009 in July, helping casino and hotel operator Enjoy raise US$43 million, while Juan Enrique Allard acted for La Polar when it raised US$136 million through a share subscription on the Chilean stock exchange. Jorge Delpiano advised energy group Compañía General de Electricidad (CGE) in its sale of shares worth US$125 million and a US$135.2 million bond issuance.
On the M&A side, Jorge Delpiano advised CGE in the US$300 million acquisition of stakes in two hydroelectric power companies, Ibener and Licán, which were the last of Spanish Iberdrola’s Chilean holdings; and Yunge, proving his skills elsewhere, advised Swedish company Skanska Infrastructure Development when it upped its share in a consortium managing the urban expressway project in Chile’s capital Santiago to 50 per cent.
Beyond corporate work, Juan Enrique Allard helped CGE settle its long-running ICSID arbitration with Argentina over legislation introduced in 2002 following the financial crisis, after renegotiating electricity tariffs with three provinces. The company withdrew its US$125 million claim under the Chile-Argentina bilateral investment treaty in June.