On 5 March 2021, Alperia SpA, Dolomiti Energia Holding SpA and Finest SpA sold their stakes in PVB Power Bulgaria AD – a company managing five hydroelectric power plants in Bulgaria with a capacity of approximately 15.5MW – to the French group Akuo Energy. The stakes were valued on the basis of an Enterprise Value of approximately €48 million.

Gianni & Origoni assisted Alperia, as well as the shareholder PVB Power in the sale of the minority share of the same company to Akuo Energy.

GOP acted with a team led by partner Francesco Puntillo, partner Francesco Bruno and associate Debora Abrardo.

For Bulgarian law, the sellers were assisted by the Tsvetkova Bebov and Komarevski firm, led by partner Venelin Dimitrov.

The financial advisers of the sellers were Equita, with a team composed of director Marino Marchi and associate director Emanuele Pennacchia, and Unicredit, with a team composed of director Alexander Poulev and associate director Antonio Romano.

Akuo Energy were represented by Spasov & Bratanov LP as to Bulgarian law with the team led by energy partner Vassil Hadjov.

IDB Invest, a member of the IDB Group, has provided a financial package of up to $106.8 million to Tanner Servicios Financieros S.A. (Tanner), with a 5-year tenor. The funds from this operation will be used to finance small and medium-sized companies (‘SMEs’) through factoring operations in Chile. The financial package is comprised of $36 million from IDB Invest and $50.8 million from commercial banks and institutional investors, including Bladex, Bancaribe, Banco de Occidente, BDH and responsibility. The deal will be co-financed by the OPEC Fund for International Development for $20 million.

The resources will allow Tanner to access financing and diversify its funding sources and generate new commercial relationships with the mobilisation of approximately $70 million that will accompany IDB Invest’s resources.

As part of the support to Tanner, IDB Invest will finance an advisory and knowledge service that aims to improve the offering of its products and services to SME clients. Legal advisers to IDB Invest were Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP and Contreras Velozo.

Speaking to Oscar Contreras Blanco at Contreras Velozo about his experience with IDB and this specific deal, he said: “I have been IDB’s attorney for more than 30 years and I have assisted the client in several key deals in Chile, first as Interamerican Investment Corporation’s (IIC) attorney and then as IDB’s counsellor. IIC/ IDB had financed Tanner from 2017 onwards and we have been retained as attorneys in all those contracts. The loan agreement was executed on December 2020 and the proceeds of the loan will be used by Tanner to finance small and medium-sized companies (‘SMEs’) through factoring operations in Chile.”

Oscar was the leading partner in this deal working together with associate Magdalena Paul. “We worked closely with IDB’s in-house attorney Mrs Lucía Abreu. As in all international finance contracts, expertise in conflicts of laws and litigation is required. Indeed, since the loan agreement is subject to U.S. law and jurisdiction and the promissory notes issued in connection with the loan are subject to Chilean law and jurisdiction, it was important to assess how the loan agreement will work in the event of default in both jurisdictions.”

Brazilian oil company Petro Rio has raised circa $364.3 million in its first follow-up offering of 29.7 million common shares. Petro Rio has made a number of significant acquisitions over the last two years and is now Brazil’s largest oil company after state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

Linklaters (New York and Sao Paulo) and Cescon, Barrieu, Flesch & Barreto Advogados (CBFB) represented the company, with CBFB assisting with the drafting and negotiation of documents and the due diligence process.

Global wind and solar company, Mainstream Renewable Power, has signed an agreement with the renewable energy investment company Aker Horizons (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aker ASA) which will take a 75% equity stake in the company, subject to regulatory approval.

The deal values Mainstream at EUR1 billion (including a potential earn-out of up to EUR 100 million in 2023 and subject to customary adjustments) which represents a significant return for shareholders of up to 5.5 times investment. The agreement paves the way for a rapid acceleration of Mainstream’s global expansion plans to bring 5.5 Gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar assets to financial close by 2023.

KPS Capital Partners, LP (“KPS”) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the global aluminium rolling business (“Rolling” or the “Company”) from Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY.OL, “Hydro”) for €1.38 billion (approximately $1.67 billion). Completion of the transaction is expected mid-year 2021 and is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals.

The Company is one of the largest global manufacturers of aluminium rolled products, serving customers across a diversified set of end-markets including beverage can, automotive, foil packaging, and building and construction. The Company’s assets consist of seven manufacturing facilities and one R&D centre across Germany and Norway, including Alunorf, the world’s largest aluminium rolling mill, and Grevenbroich, the world’s largest rolled aluminium finishing mill. The Company employs approximately 5,000 employees mainly in Germany and Norway.

Michael Psaros, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of KPS, said, “The size and global scale of the Rolling business, the quality of its assets, coupled with the breadth of its products and technology capabilities, form the foundation of a tremendous investment platform. KPS Partner Kyle Mumford will lead a KPS team who will work closely with the Company’s management team to accelerate growth opportunities driven by substantial investment in the Company’s assets and operations.”

Rising Mexican law firm BlackBox Startup Law advised Jüsto, an online supermarket startup that operates in Mexico’s major cities, since its incorporation to be prepared for its Series A financing round.  The US$65 million investment was led by General Atlantic and included existing investors such as Foundation Capital and Mountain Nazca.

The BlackBox Startup Law team which advised on the transaction was led by founding partner Victor Aguirre-López, with the participation of partner Carlos Aguerrebere-Álvarez and associate Iván Guzmán-Morales.

The financing closed on 29 March 2021.

Innovatec (a company listed on the AIM market that is focused on the environment and green efficiency) closed a refinancing to support its business development for the amount of €2,890,000, with a tenor of 48 months and backed by a 90% collateralisation granted by Fondo Centrale di Garanzia.

Innovatec was supported by Emanuele Boschi, partner of Financial Advisory practice of BL Studio, who supported the client in structuring, negotiating and executing the transaction that leveraged on BL Studio’s proven track record in transactions backed by public guarantees and other state-driven supporting schemes - both for the industrial and the service sector.

The merger of the dogado group and Herold, both companies which are majority-owned by the EDSA group, will create one of the largest providers of website and online marketing services for domestic SMEs. Martin Sinzger, Managing Partner at SIWE Rechtsanwälte Sinzger & Partner and bpv Huegel advised dogado group, while Allen & Overy acted for the EDSA group.

The merger creates a player with a unique strategic position in the digital market as both companies specialise in helping small and medium-sized companies to achieve business success with website and online marketing products. The approaches of HEROLD and dogado group complement each other ideally.

Bruchou, Fernández Madero & Lombardi, Becker, Glynn, Muffly, Chassin & Hosinski and Robinson & Cole advised on the transaction

Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native technology services company, executed the acquisition of gA, a leading digital and cloud transformation services company with presence in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Spain.

With this acquisition, Globant reinforces its leading positioning delivering digital and cognitive transformation as it broadens its expertise in Life Sciences, CPG, Manufacturing and Logistics. gA also complements and deepens Globant’s capabilities to deliver cloud journey and enterprise application services.

CloudHQ will invest over $750 million USD to build and operate a data centre campus in Queretaro, Mexico.  This is the largest digital infrastructure project in the State, aiming to set Queretaro as the Mexican hub for data centres.

Landeros, Castro y Mancera Abogados is providing lobbying, infrastructure, telecom and power energy interconnection, tax, administrative, financing and corporate assistance, among others, for the company’s soft landing in the country.

The lawyers involved are Owen Landeros (regulatory & infrastructure projects), Ted von Harrsch (corporate & transactional), Antonio Castro (tax and foreign trade) and Roberto Ortiz (financing and banking).