Partner, New York Phone +1-212-558-4740 Fax +1-212-558-3588 Add to Address Book

Sergio J. Galvis is widely recognized for his broad-based international experience. He represents a diverse group of clients including government bodies, corporations, investment banks and other organizations.

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Galvis has advised our clients on significant matters in a number of practice areas and industry sectors, including:

• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Private Equity
• Project Finance
• Securities
• Sovereign and Corporate Debt Restructurings
• Oil and Gas
• Metals and Mining

Mr. Galvis heads our Latin American Group and coordinates our practice in Spain. He sits on our Managing Partners Committee and is co-head of Business Development for the Firm.

Selected Transactions

M&A

• Royal Bank of Scotland in the sale of its Colombian banking operations to Scotiabank (Canada)
• Anglo American (U.K.) in its $5.5 billion acquisition of IronX (renamed Anglo Ferrous Brazil S.A.) demerged from MMX Mineração e Metálicos S.A. (Brazil), through an initial acquisition of a 63.5% stake from controlling shareholders and a following tagalong to remaining shareholders. Anglo Ferrous owns a 51% interest in the Minas-Rio iron ore mining project and 70% interest in the Amapá iron ore system
• Antofagasta plc (U.K.) in the $1.4 billion acquisition by Marubeni Corporation (Japan) to acquire a 30% interest in each of Minera Esperanza (Chile), which is developing a greenfield copper-gold mining project, and Minera El Tesoro (Chile), which owns and operates an existing open-pit copper mine
• Tenaris (Argentina/Luxembourg) in its $2.2 billion acquisition of Hydril Company (U.S.) and $3.185 billion acquisition of Maverick Tube Corporation (U.S.)
• Endesa (Spain) in the $58.4 billion acquisition by Enel (Italy) and Acciona (Spain), as well as in the prior unsolicited bids for Endesa by E.ON (Germany) for $81.8 billion and Gas Natural (Spain) for $52.3 billion
• Bancolombia (Colombia) in its $790 million acquisition of Banagricola (El Salvador) and $1 billion three-way merger with CONAVI (Colombia) and CORFINSURA (Colombia)
• Camargo Corrêa (Brazil) in its $1.025 billion acquisition of Loma Negra (Argentina) and its subsidiaries

Private Equity

• Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) (Canada), as member of a private equity consortium in the $1.5 billion acquisition of HQI Transelec Chile (Chile) from Hydro-Québec (Canada)
• GP Investimentos (Brazil) in its $64 million acquisition (with other investors) of a 40% stake in Fogo de Chão Churrascarias (Holdings) LLP (Brazil)

Project Development and Finance

• Minera Esperanza, the project company, whose sponsors are Antofagasta plc and Marubeni Corporation, in the development and financing of the estimated $2.3 billion greenfield copper, gold and silver project in the Atacama desert (Chile). This was the largest mining project ever to close in Latin America and was awarded the 2009 Americas Mining Deal of the Year by Project Finance International and 2009 Latin American Mining & Metals Deal of the Year by Project Finance
• Marcobre, the project company, whose sponsors are Chariot Resources Limited, Korea Resources Corporation and LS-Nikko Copper Inc., in the development and financing of the estimated $430 million Marcona copper project (Peru) 
• Panama Canal Authority (Panama) – advice on the legal and constitutional framework in preparation for the expansion of the Panama Canal (2004 to 2007)
• Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., as sponsors in the Cerro Verde II Project (Peru) – $850 million copper mining expansion financing – ranked by LatinLawyer as the 2005 Project Finance Deal of the Year and by Project Finance as its Latin American Mining Deal of the Year for 2005
• OCP Pipeline Project (Ecuador) and ongoing work – $1.4 billion
• Los Pelambres Copper Project Refinancing (Chile) – $460 million

Securities

• Ternium (Argentina/Luxembourg), in its formation as a holding company and operating subsidiaries in Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela, its $496.8 million IPO and its NYSE listing
• Tenaris (Argentina/Luxembourg) in the multi-jurisdictional $ 2.1 billion stock-for-stock exchange offer for the outstanding shares of Siderca (Argentina), TAMSA (Mexico) and Dalmine (Italy)

Sovereign and Corporate Debt Restructurings

• The International Managing Banks on the restructuring of more than $100 billion of Argentina's external debt. This was the largest sovereign exchange offer to date and was named by LatinLawyer as the 2005 Debt Restructuring Deal of the Year and by The Banker for its Deals of the Year 2005
• Sidor (Venezuela) in the restructuring through which Sidor and its controlling shareholder, Amazonia, reduced their aggregate financial debt from $1.9 billion to $791 million
• The bank lenders and bondholders (mostly U.S.) in connection with restructuring the indebtedness of Cablevisión (Argentina)
• Siderar (Argentina) in the restructuring of approximately $470 million of its outstanding debt

Oil and Gas

• Camisea Gas Project (Peru) – $837 million project financing of LNG project. Ranked by Project Finance as the Latin America Oil & Gas Deal of the Year
• Senior lenders in the $1.6 billion financing and refinancing of the EVM oil and gas project (Brazil)
• OCP (Ecuador) in connection with the $385 million acquisition by Sinopec (China) of a 30% interest in OCP, including the assignment of transportation and other rights

Metals and Mining

• Minera Esperanza project financing (Chile)
• Engaged by Marcobre, the project company, to provide advice regarding the development and financing of the estimated $430 million Marcona copper project (Peru)
• Sumitomo (Japan) in the $443 million purchase of an equity stake in Cerro Verde (Peru)
• Collahuasi Copper Mining project refinancing (Chile)

Mr. Galvis has been recognized in a number of publications, including Chambers, Euromoney, IFLR and LatinLawyer. In 2008, he was named by The National Law Journal as one of "The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America" and by HispanicBusiness magazine as one of "The 100 Most Influential U.S. Hispanics." Mr. Galvis writes frequently on international legal and financial matters. He was a recipient of the 2004 Burton Awards for Legal Achievement for his article, "Sovereign Debt Restructurings – the Market Knows Best" published in International Finance. Mr. Galvis was part of a group of eminent practitioners convened by a G-10 Working Group in 2002 to help develop collective action clauses for sovereign debt financings and was a participant in Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.'s 2007 Conference on U.S. Capital Markets Competitiveness.

Mr. Galvis is involved with a number of not-for-profit and foreign policy organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Council of the Americas.

In February 2010, he received the Distinguished Global Citizen Award at the Global Kids annual benefit, where he was honored for his commitment to organizations that promote educational opportunities, arts education and international cooperation.

Mr. Galvis was born in Colombia and is fluent in Spanish.

Recent Recognitions

M&A

• Chambers Latin America: Latin America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009, 2010)
• Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009)
• Euromoney, Guide to the World's Leading Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers (2009) 
• IFLR, Mergers & Acquisitions Yearbook (2005)
• New York Super Lawyers (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• The Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America (2007)
• The Lawdragon 500: Leading Dealmakers in America (2007)
• The Lawdragon 500: New Stars, New Worlds (2006)
• Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition (2009)

Private Equity

• The Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America (2007)
• The Lawdragon 500: New Stars, New Worlds (2006)

Project Development and Finance

• Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (2004-2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• Chambers Latin America: Latin America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009, 2010)
• Euromoney, Guide to the World's Leading Project Finance Lawyers (2004, 2006, 2007)
• The International Who's Who of Project Finance Lawyers (2005, 2007, 2009)
• The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers (2005, 2006, 2007)
• PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• PLC Cross-Border Handbook: Finance: Secured Lending (2006/2007, 2007/2008)
• The Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America (The 500 Better Than the Best) (2007)
• The Lawdragon 500: New Stars, New Worlds (2006)
• The Best Lawyers in America (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
• The Legal 500, United States, Volume I (2007)

Capital Markets

• Chambers Latin America: Latin America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009, 2010)
• Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
• Euromoney, Guide to the World's Leading Structured Finance Lawyers (2007)
• PLC Cross-Border Finance Handbook (2006)
• The Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America (2007)
• The Lawdragon 500: New Stars, New Worlds (2006)

Latin American Investment

• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2007, 2008, 2009) 
• Chambers Latin America: Latin America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2009, 2010)