As we enter 2026, we are pleased to revisit with our clients and friends some of our Firm’s achievements involving Latin America over the past year. This has been an eventful year for the region, marked by both political transitions and economic challenges and opportunities.
During this time, Sullivan & Cromwell has been privileged to play a leading role in many of the most innovative and transformative deals in Latin America and in litigation critical to the region. Drawing on our decades of experience advising clients during volatile periods, we have helped clients address multifaceted challenges and manage critical, unexpected issues—capabilities particularly valuable in Latin America. As one example, we have been at the forefront of guiding clients through periods of significant political and economic transformations in Argentina, including advising the sponsors developing the Vaca Muerta Sur Pipeline Project, the most important private Argentine infrastructure project in decades and the first significant project financed under Argentina’s new RIGI investment promotion regime.
Unlike the regional practices at many firms, our group operates as an integrated part of the Firm (rather than as a silo), leveraging the experience of lawyers in M&A, project finance, litigation and other practice areas that maintain leading practices active around the world. We are pleased to note that one of our nine new partners, Andrew DeFilippis, a former federal prosecutor and Counselor to the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, advises on national security, white-collar and other regulatory matters highly pertinent to our clients in Latin America, including sanctions, anti-money laundering laws and tariffs. And two of our new special counsel play significant roles in our Latin America practice: Arturo Carlos Schultz has been a key team member for some of our most important litigations and arbitrations in the region; and Jay Thornton focuses on IP transactional advice in Latin America and elsewhere.
In addition, our Visiting Lawyers program, now in its 76th year, welcomed another strong class from around the world, including lawyers from Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Mexico, further strengthening our connections to the region.
M&A
In the past year, we continued to help clients find solutions to the most complex and thorny mandates, including complicated structures, multibillion-dollar values and cross-border matters implicating a broad range of jurisdictions in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Gulf region.
We advised Bancolombia as it executed complex corporate structure changes that created a new holding company for all its operations under the umbrella of Grupo Cibest, then advised Grupo Cibest on its $1.4 billion sale of Panama’s Banistmo to Inversiones Cuscatlán Centroamérica. In another of the most significant M&A deals in Colombia’s banking industry in recent years, we advised The Bank of Nova Scotia on its agreement to transfer its banking operations in Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to Colombian bank Banco Davivienda.
In a deal that will further catalyze the creation of an emerging world-class copper district in Argentina and Chile, we advised Lundin on its C$4.1 billion acquisition of Filo with BHP and follow-on joint venture with BHP. This major commitment by two world-class mining companies is among the first consummated following Argentina’s new RIGI investment promotion regime, and advances Argentina’s goals to develop into one of the largest copper producers in the world.
Reflecting the world’s continued demand for lithium, we are advising Corporación Nacional Del Cobre De Chile (Codelco) in its agreement to sell a 49.99 percent interest in Salar de Maricunga SpA to a subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc. Salar de Maricunga, a wholly owned subsidiary of Codelco, was granted a special operation contract by Chile for the exploration and exploitation of lithium in the Maricunga salt flat in Chile’s Atacama region.
Project Financing
S&C has long been known for advising clients on industry-defining transactions and innovations in project financing, demonstrated by this year’s ground-breaking deals in Latin America.
In the most important private Argentine energy infrastructure project in decades, we advised VMOS on the $2 billion project financing for the development of the Vaca Muerta Sur Pipeline Project. This deal is the largest commercial loan for an infrastructure project in Argentine history and one of the top five oil and gas financings ever in Latin America. It is also the first financing of a significant project under Argentina’s new RIGI investment promotion regime, and represents the reopening of the international project finance market after years in which that market was closed to Argentina.
We advised Minera Los Pelambres, which operates one of Chile’s most largest copper mines, on its $2 billion water infrastructure financing. In a pioneering feature, Minera Los Pelambres’ water facilities were unbundled from the rest of the business, providing infrastructure returns to investors without the commodity price risks inherent in a mining business. We also acted for the Panama Canal Authority on structuring the arrangements for its multibillion-dollar Trans-Panama Pipeline Project to transport natural gas liquids across the Panamanian isthmus. The pipeline will relieve pressure on the canal by reducing the number of tankers needing to transit through it and improve the efficiency of the U.S.-Asia export market.
Capital Markets
S&C advised on more Latin America capital markets financings than any other firm, with offerings totaling more than $70 billion in 2025. With deep connections to investment banks, we represent both issuers and underwriters and are designated underwriters counsel for offerings by Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Panama.
We advised the underwriters on the United Mexican States’ $8.5 billion bond offering, the largest SEC-registered issuance by the country in history, and on UMS’ $14 billion liability management transaction, consisting of two global notes offerings of €5 billion and $8 billion. And in the first-ever P-Caps transaction involving a sovereign, we advised the initial purchasers in UMS’ $12 billion offering.
We also advised underwriters for the Republic of Colombia on three offerings—for €4.1 billion, $3.8 billion and $3.6 billion—and underwriters for the Federative Republic of Brazil on three bond offerings totaling $8 billion.
We continue to play a leading role as counsel for corporate issuers, such as for Inversiones CMPC’s $600 million notes offering, its first in the international capital markets of hybrid subordinated debt securities. We also advised Antofagasta plc on its $600 million Rule 144A/Reg S notes offering; Minera Los Pelambres on its $1.55 billion of privately placed notes; and TelevisaUnivision on two notes offerings by its subsidiary, Univision Communications, totaling $2.255 billion.
Disputes
For more than a century, we have advised on the most complex and noteworthy litigations, arbitrations, restructurings and government investigations across the region. The past year has been particularly eventful, as we have advised clients on heightened risks involving U.S. anti-money laundering laws, sanctions and tariffs.
We have also represented The Republic of Argentina on multiple fronts, including in litigation that is crucial to its efforts to return to the international capital markets. Most prominent is a dispute stemming from Argentina’s expropriation of a majority stake in Argentine energy company YPF. In 2023, a judge in the Southern District of New York entered a $16.1 billion judgment against the Republic in litigation brought by two YPF minority investors.
When the plaintiffs obtained an order requiring the Republic to turn over its 51 percent stake in YPF to partially satisfy that judgment while it is on appeal, we obtained a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that halted the turnover until it could be reviewed on appeal, which we are handling. Notably, the United States filed amicus briefs supporting our position, stressing that the issues in this case have “significant ramifications for the United States’ foreign relations.”
In separate litigation, S&C helped eliminate $1.65 billion in breach-of-contract claims by holders of Argentina’s GDP-linked securities, obtaining the dismissal of claims brought by hedge funds.
In one of the largest claims in the modern history of investor-state disputes, we have been representing First Quantum Minerals Ltd. in arbitration matters in Panama related to its Cobre Panama mine. We also advised a major copper producing company in an ICC arbitration against a sovereign and its state entity, where the sovereign was found to have acted in bad faith and breached its obligations to our client. And in a dispute over a contractual tax-allocation provision stemming from a $2.2 billion M&A deal, we obtained a favorable reversal on appeal on behalf of Sumitomo entities that had sold their stake in Chile’s Sierra Gorda copper mine.
Recognitions
We are honored that our work was recognized by the region’s leading publications.
In the 2026 edition of Chambers Latin America, S&C was recognized in five areas: Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A, Project Finance and International Arbitration. We were again named “International Elite” in the Latin Lawyer 250, recognized for 11 practices, tying us for the most of any firm. In LACCA Approved, the annual listing of the best international private practitioners in Latin America as determined by the Latin American Corporate Counsel Association, we also had the most practitioners recognized among U.S. firms.
Our work on Minera Los Pelambres’ innovative $2 billion project financing was recognized with awards for “Bond of the Year, Latin America” and “Utilities Deal of the Year, Latin America” by IJGlobal’s Investor Awards and for “Infrastructure Financing of the Year: Latin America” by LatinFinance’s Project & Infrastructure Finance Awards. And our work on VMOS’ $2 billion project financing for the development of the Vaca Muerta Sur Pipeline Project was recognized with Project Finance International’s award for “Americas Oil & Gas Deal of the Year.”
Thank you to all who contributed to these results—we look forward to another year of collaboration and shared success in 2026.
Sergio J. Galvis
Werner F. Ahlers
Co-Heads of Sullivan & Cromwell’s Latin America Practice