Maples and Calder

This content can only be accessed by Latin Lawyer subscribers

Maples and Calder’s dedicated Latin American group provides legal advice on Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Irish structures and comprises specialists with extensive experience advising on innovative offshore legal structures for major institutional clients from the region.

The group contains lawyers and support staff who are fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. The group is led by practice co-heads Simon Firth and Kieran Walsh. Partner contacts for different offices are as follows: Simon Firth (Cayman Islands), Kieran Walsh (British Virgins Islands/Cayman Islands), Richard May (British Virgin Islands), Gareth Griffiths (Hong Kong), Stephen Carty (Dublin) and Tatziana Paraguacuto-Maheo (London).

The partners are assisted by six associates in the Cayman Islands and three associates in the British Virgin Islands who work on Latin American transactions, plus various other partners and associates who assist where their particular expertise is required.

In addition, due to increased interest in fund administration and fiduciary services provided by MaplesFS, Scott Somerville and Guy Major, based in the Cayman Islands and Delaware respectively are members of the group.

In terms of growth, the Latin American group has increased in size and coverage, with more associates working on Latin American transactions on a full time basis and members of the Dublin and London offices and MaplesFS being assimilated into the team. Inclusion of our Irish capacity in the Latin American practice group has occurred principally due to a significant increase in listing of Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands debt issuing vehicles and funds on the Irish Stock Exchange and an increasing interest in Irish investment funds generally.

Transactions that our lawyers have advised on have won the Latin Lawyer awards for Project Finance Deal of the Year (2007), M&A Deal of the Year (2006), and Corporate Finance Deal of the Year (Runner-up 2006), the Latin Finance awards for Best Project Financing Deal (2011), Best Financial Institutional Bond, Best Syndicated Loan, Best Quasi-Sovereign Bond and Best Corporate Bond (all 2008) and the IFLR Americas awards for Project Finance Deal of the Year (2011) and Debt-Equity Deal of the Year (2009).

The team specialises in the following areas:

Funds: Maples and Calder and MaplesFS provide a full suite of services to meet your needs throughout the life of your fund. With a market share of approximately 40 per cent for Cayman fund establishment (both open- and close-ended), Maples and Calder is recognised as the Cayman Islands’ leading law firm. Capitalising on our position as market leader and our ability to provide quality legal advice through our Latin American specialists, we are able to provide our clients with a tailored service that is unmatched by rivals. As a result, the group has developed structures for many of the leading investment fund managers either operating from or investing into Latin America.

Structured finance: Our Latin American group has a wealth of experience in structured finance and has consolidated our firm’s position as the lead offshore firm with respect to Latin originated securitisation transactions. A recent development of note in the structured finance sector is the continued growth of the Latin export finance market, which we have been heavily involved with in relation not only to the staples of oil, steel and minerals but also to the rapidly growing agro business sector, having acted in relation to a series of sugar, beef and ethanol transactions.

Banking: We maintain very strong relations with many of the large banks in the region. In addition to advising on bank licensing and regulation, including some recent high-profile Latin American bank mergers, we act for a number of banks with respect to bond issues, medium-term note and commercial paper programmes.

Corporate: Our clients include petrochemical entities, steel producers, mining companies, airlines and a host of other industrials/corporates in the region. As a result, we have extensive experience in project finance and asset finance, having acted as Cayman deal counsel on a number of infrastructure projects, gas pipeline and oil platform transactions, as well as advising in relation to aircraft and ship financings, a series of large M&A transactions and joint venture/shareholder arrangements.

Trusts: We advise settlors, trustees and beneficiaries on private wealth and estate planning issues including charities. Through our extensive network of contacts, we make introductions to international institutional trustees. We also advise on trustees and investors in unit trusts.

MaplesFS

MaplesFS provides specialised fiduciary and corporate administration services to a wide range of investment funds and structured finance transactions.

Maples and Calder and MaplesFS have approximately 700 lawyers and staff worldwide. They have offices in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Delaware, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Montreal and New York.

Simon Firth • simon.firth@maplesandcalder.com

Kieran Walsh • kieran.walsh@maplesandcalder.com

www.maplesandcalder.com

www.maplesfs.com