Thursday, 27th September 2012 by Marieke Breijer

Continuing our coverage of the Latin Lawyer Private Equity Conference held in New York last week, we look at the panel discussing PE investment in regulated industries.

Paul Schnell

The panel brought together Diego Serrano Redonnet of Argentine firm Perez, Alati, Grondona, Benites, Arntsen & Martinez de Hoz (h), Jean Michel Enriquez of Mexico’s Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enriquez SC, Guilherme Malouf of Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados, alongside Frank Holder of FTI Consulting. The panel was led by Paul Schnell of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

Holder touched on alarming signals coming from markets such as Argentina and Venezuela, whereas countries such as Mexico, Peru, Colombia, are seen welcoming capital investment, and pursuing free market ideals. These countries move in an opposite direction and that presents an interesting dynamic, he said.

Holder believes that countries will need private money to keep its industries running. “In the Argentine issue, the country is losing more money now that it was and the government cannot eternally subsidise that. In Mexico, Pemex is going to allow foreign investment into the oil & gas sector, in Brazil there will be pension reform, there has to be,” he said.

The group of lawyers looked at the significance of the Argentine government’s expropriation of Repsol’s stake in oil and gas company YPF. Redonnet said that the asset seizure obviously created concern among the business community, but noted that it should not necessarily lead to a larger wave of nationalisations. He pointed to the Argentine utilities companies privatised in the 1990s that remain in private hands today.

The Latin Lawyer Private Equity Conference was held in New York on 20 September, and also looked at the banks’ and funds’ perspectives of the region, discussed merger control, the fundraising prospects for private equity, as well as activity in the situation in Brazil and the opportunities available to investors in Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia, versus those in more stable countries such as Chile, Colombia and Peru.

(Latin Lawyer 27.09.2012)

(Notícia na Íntegra)