Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced today that its São Paulo, Brazil office has opened following completion of its registration with the São Paulo Bar Association (OAB-SP).
"Simpson Thacher has been active in Latin America since the 1970s across a wide range of practice areas," said Pete Ruegger, Chairman of the Firm’s Executive Committee. "Our opening in São Paulo is a result of our commitment to the Brazilian market and our continuing commitment to the entire region. Our São Paulo office will enhance our ability to support clients based in Brazil and throughout Latin America as well as other clients worldwide who have business interests in the region."
"We offer clients multi-lingual attorneys with years, sometimes decades, of experience practicing in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America," said Todd Crider, Co-Head of the São Paulo office. "We are excited to build on this experience by combining the convenience of a physical presence in the region with our familiarity with local practice and culture. By offering our local presence with full access to Simpson Thacher’s worldwide resources on an integrated basis, we can provide unsurpassed client service across Latin America."
Simpson Thacher offers a Latin American practice group with more than 25 lawyers, most of whom speak Spanish and/or Portuguese. Simpson Thacher attorneys routinely advise on transactions that cut across corporate disciplines, including equity and debt offerings, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, private equity investments and fund formation, syndicated loans, and project and other structured financings. The Firm also advises clients in major disputes and arbitrations involving corporate and sovereign clients in the region.
Recent engagements in Latin America include:
- Public equity offerings of Companhia de Concessões Rodoviárias, the largest toll road concession company in Brazil, Tivit S.A., the largest Brazilian IT and BPO services company, and Cyrela Brazil Realty and PDG Realty, two of the largest real estate developers in Brazil.
- Debt offerings by a range of leading Latin American companies, including commercial aircraft manufacturer Embraer Overseas Limited, guaranteed by Embraer – Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A., Teléfonos de México, S.A.B. de C.V., América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V., Controladora Mabe, S.A. de C.V., Petrotemex, S.A. de C.V. and Alestra, S. de R.L. de C.V.
- Representation of Vivendi in its $4.2 billion tender offer for Brazilian telecom company GVT (Holdings) S.A.
- Representation of Perdigão S.A. in its business combination with Sadia S.A., creating BRF-Brasil Foods S.A., the largest food company in Brazil and one of the largest such companies in the world.
- Representation of Colombia-based Avianca Airlines in its business combination with El Salvador-based airline group Grupo TACA.
- Representation of the controlling shareholders of Chilean food retailer Distribución y Servicio D&S S.A. in the sale of a control stake in D&S to Wal-Mart, Inc.
- Representation of UBS in the sale of its Brazilian platform to BTG Pactual S.A.
- Representation of Andrade Gutierrez Concessões and other sponsors in connection with the arrangement of financing for the acquisition of San José International Airport in San José, Costa Rica.
- Representation of the dealer managers in connection with a US$1.2 billion bridge loan to Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem S.A. to finance its acquisition of petrochemical assets of the Ipiranga Group and a portion of the minority interests in Copesul—Companhia Petroquímica do Sul.
Corporate partners Todd Crider and Jaime Mercado will head the São Paulo office and will be based in São Paulo in succession while maintaining a regular presence in New York and continuing to represent clients elsewhere in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Iberian Peninsula. A total of five attorneys will be based in São Paulo initially, all of whom transferred from Simpson Thacher’s New York headquarters. The São Paulo office also will be supported by partners Glenn M. Reiter, David L. Williams and John Ericson in New York and by William Brentani in Palo Alto, all of whom are active participants in the Firm’s Latin American practice group.