"This is an important firm – one of the biggest and certainly one of the very few in Uruguay with deep corporate capabilities", a competitor says of Ferrere this year and this is reflective of wider market opinion as the firm continues to command respect from peers.
Much of that respect is attributable to partners Andrés Cerisola and Diego Rodríguez on the banking side of the firm's practice and partner Martín Cerruti, who oversees much of the corporate and M&A work....
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"This is an important firm – one of the biggest and certainly one of the very few in Uruguay with deep corporate capabilities", a competitor says of Ferrere this year and this is reflective of wider market opinion as the firm continues to command respect from peers.
Much of that respect is attributable to partners Andrés Cerisola and Diego Rodríguez on the banking side of the firm's practice and partner Martín Cerruti, who oversees much of the corporate and M&A work. Another market attorney mentions the top lawyers at the firm collectively, saying: "The people that do most of the transactional work [at Ferrere] are very good. Dealing with people who know what they're doing is a hundred times easier than having to make sure the other side is doing what they're supposed to while you're trying to do your job too".
In addition to the firm's Uruguayan presence, clients appreciate its ability to maintain high standards while working throughout the region: "They're very good and very well-known in Uruguay," one client notes. "Given the fact that Ferrere has offices in a number of countries, though, they attempt to efficiently combine their cross-border capabilities in order to give the best available advice to their client."
Deals
Last year Rodríguez and his team advised the lenders, as well as a syndicate of banks acting as guarantors, in the financing for the Montes del Plata pulp mill. Montes del Plata was granted a credit facility totalling $1.35 billion from the firm's clients the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Finnvera, the Finnish government's export credit agency. The financing deal closed in November 2011.
In February 2012 Rodríguez again led as the firm assisted Chilean asset manager Independencia and Uruguay's EF Asset Management in structuring one of the first real estate investment trusts (REIT) to be offered in Uruguay. The REIT is called Fideicomiso Financiero de Inversiones y Rentas Inmobiliarias and was valued at $60 million upon formation.
Ferrere also counselled JPMorgan Chase in the purchase of a minority interest in Sura Asset Management (SAM). SAM is an affiliate of the Colombia-based Grupo Sura, a company especially created to manage pension and wealth management assets in Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay which were recently acquired from ING at the end of 2011. The transaction was valued at nearly $178 million and closed in June 2012.
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