Mr Manuel Gonzalez > Martinez Vergara & Gonzalez Sociedad > Manila, Philippines > Lawyer Profile

Mr Manuel Gonzalez

+63 2 8687 1195 manuel.gonzalez@mvgslaw.com View profile

Work Department

Position

Senior Partner

Career

Mr. Gonzalez is the Head of the Firm’s Capital Markets Practice Group as well as its Projects and Energy Practice Group.

Mr. Gonzalez has over 20 years of experience in corporate and commercial law, specializing in securities and capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and cross border transactions. He served as counsels for both issuers and financial advisors / underwriters in some of the biggest and most successful offerings in recent years. His expertise covers initial public offerings, backdoor listings and listings by way of introduction, rights offering, and top-up transactions among others.   He was most recently represented an issuer in its successful listing of Merry Mart Consumer Corp. with the PSE in June of 2020 and a successful bond offering a listed company which was subsequently listed with the Singapore Stock Exchange.  

In the field of mergers and acquisition, Mr. Gonzalez was most recently involved in the acquisition of a listed company, successfully concluding a tender offer in the process. He also advised a client in its acquisition of a well-known international consumer brand and was involved in the partnership by another client with a major Japanese telecommunications company.  Recently he advised the shareholders of one of the largest personal care companies in the country on the sale of its company to a listed multinational company.  

Mr. Gonzalez has always been keen in helping foreign investors in the Philippines. He serves as director and corporate secretary/external counsel to some of the largest foreign business process outsourcing companies who have established a presence in the country, advising them on structuring investments, requirements and procedure for registration with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and the Board of Investments, and intellectual property rights.

 On the development and infrastructure front, Mr. Gonzalez has considerable exposure in public bidding for projects under the Public-Private Partnership Program of the government advising the client in bidding for the modernization of the orthopedic hospital of the Department of Health, the building of schools of the Department of Education Culture and Sports, the rehabilitation of a major airport and the automated fare collection system, both of the Department of Transportation and Communications, among others.

His more recent special projects include:

• One of the few initial public offerings in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, acted as counsel to issuer MerryMart Consumer Corp. which is principally engaged in the operation of retail stores in the supermarket and household essentials categories
• Advised a foreign real-estate company listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in its acquisition of shares of a domestic company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange, and assisted in the target’s execution of a co-development agreement as sole operator and manager of an integrated hotel and casino project in Manila Bay Reclamation Area
• Acted for DoubleDragon Properties Corp. in the USD75,000,000 bond offering of its wholly-owned subsidiary which it listed with the Singapore Stock Exchange
• Acted as counsel to a real estate and property development firm in its of issuance of multi-billion corporate notes for use in landbanking initiatives

Mr. Gonzalez has been recognized as a Leading Individual in Projects and Energy since 2019 and is also cited as a Recommended Lawyer in Capital Markets and Banking and Finance.

Languages

English; Filipino

Memberships

Education

New York University, BA Political Science and Economics, Cum Laude (1988)
University of the Philippines, Bachelor of Laws (1992)