LatinFinance - January/February 2014 - 55

Similarly, the merger and acquisition
business was busy in 2013, and is likely to
stay that way this year. Obregón credits
the growth to equity and debt sales by real
estate funds (fibras) and Certificados de
Capital de Desarrollo (CCD) issues by other
funds.
"That provided a lot of liquidity
to private equity fund managers,
infrastructure fund managers and real
estate fund managers, which resulted in
a substantial amount of work, at least at
our firm, for different specialized practice
areas," he says.
Ritch Mueller grew last year when
Thomas Heather re-joined the firm,
bringing a team of seven with arbitration,
insolvency and restructuring expertise.
Heather worked at the firm between 1981
and 2005, when he left to join White &
Case as a partner, and later to form his own
boutique firm.
"That gives us more presence in certain
sub-practice areas," says Mueller. "We
also picked up a great staff with junior and
senior associates that can channel to our
energy and other practice areas and that
we can train based on our increasing deal
flow and our experience in such practice
areas." LF

LAW FIRM LATAM

Cleary Gottlieb
Brazil may be out of favor
with a host of international
investors, but it will still
offer deals this year, says
the 2013 winner
Amid sluggish growth, political
uncertainty and a painful infrastructure
deficit, Brazil struggles to win much
attention from global investors these
days. Yet some in the market still see
opportunities.
Francesca Odell, partner at Cleary
Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LatinFinance's
Law Firm of the Year in Latin America,
reckons acquisitions and infrastructure
financings are likely to keep ticking over.
Moreover, Brazilian companies will
keep looking for acquisition targets, both
domestic and international. "There's still a
lot of potential there," she says.
Similarly, more infrastructure projects

are ahead as the 2016 Olympics get closer.
Brazil's development bank, BNDES, and
private sector lenders will have to increase
their involvement, Odell says.
Among transactions in Cleary's LatAm
capital markets portfolio in 2013 was
Petrobras' $11 billion jumbo bond - a deal
that was crowned quasi-sovereign bond
of the year. That sits next to other winning
deals the firm has advised on: the sovereign
bond of the year, Chile's $1.5 billion 2022
and 2042 bond, and the sovereign liability
management of the year, Mexico's €1.6
billion deal, high-grade bond of the year,
Femsa's $1 billion 2023 and 2043 dualtranche issue, and the financing innovation
of the year, América Móvil's global local
instrument.
Elsewhere, business could pick up from
Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic,
Panama and Uruguay in 2014, says Odell.
"Colombia is an area where we've
historically been very active, and there's a
lot of real interest there, and a lot of strong
economic signs," she says.
More broadly, Odell expects mergers,
acquisitions and private equity deals
will pick up this year. That goes for both
regional deals, and those between Latin
America and the US. LF

January/February 2014 - L ATINFINA NCE.COM 55
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