Fulvio Italiani > D'Empaire > Caracas, Venezuela > Lawyer Profile

Fulvio Italiani

+58 212 2646244 fitaliani@dra.com.ve

Work Department

Corporate, Finance, Oil and Gas, and Mergers and Acquisitions

Position

Partner

Career

Fulvio specializes in corporate, mergers and acquisitions, energy, and finance law. He has participated in most of the significant acquisition, financing and oil and gas transactions taking place in Venezuela in the last years.

Before becoming a partner at D’Empaire in 1997, Fulvio worked as an associate at the New York offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom from 1993 to 1996.

Fulvio has been consistently ranked as a “Star Individual” and “Band 1” by Chambers & Partners (2019 Venezuela Corporate/M&A and Banking and Finance Rankings, respectively) and as a “Leading Lawyer” by The Legal 500 (2018 Venezuela Corporate/M&A and Banking and Finance Rankings).

He was honored with an award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession” at the 2013 Chambers Latin America Awards for Excellence, in recognition of “his business skills and legal expertise which have been of great benefit to national and multinational companies investing in the challenging economic climate of Venezuela.” He has also been named one of “Latin America’s Top 50 Legal Stars” by Latin Business Chronicle.

Fulvio has been continuously recognized as one of the best corporate/M&A and finance lawyers in Venezuela by Chambers Global, Chambers Latin America, The Legal 500 and Latin Lawyer 250, and was included in the list of top Venezuelan lawyers under 40 by Latin Lawyer (2003). He has also been ranked as a Venezuelan leading lawyer by PLC Which Lawyer? and IFLR 1000.

His representations include:

• Zurich in its sale of Zurich Venezuela
• Maurel & Prom in its purchase of a 40 percent equity participation in Petroregional del Lago from Shell
• Liberty Mutual in its sale of Seguros Caracas, Venezuela’s largest insurance company
• Fairfax in its purchase of the AIG-owned Venezuelan insurance company
• Corimon Group in the acquisition of Bridgestone Firestone Venezolana C.A.
• General Mills in the sale of its Venezuelan subsidiary to a Venezuelan investor
• GE as Venezuelan counsel in its acquisition of the Power and Grid divisions of Alstom
• Manufacturing and Logistics Solutions Limited in its acquisition of the Venezuelan operations of Dana Holding Corporation
• BTG Pactual as Venezuelan counsel in its acquisition of Globenet
• The Carlyle Group as Venezuelan counsel in its acquisition of DuPont Performance Coatings
• The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in a US$1.5 billion Pre-Paid Export Finance Facility to Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A.
• AEI and The Williams Companies Inc. in the sale of Accroven to PDVSA Gas for US$214 million
• Banco Santander in the sale of Banco de Venezuela to the Government of Venezuela for US$1.05 billion
• Ternium in the sale of Sidor to the Government of Venezuela for US$1.97 billion
• CNPC Services in connection with an oil and gas services joint venture with PDVSA Servicios
• DaimlerChrysler as Venezuelan counsel in connection with the transfer of its majority interest in the Chrysler Group to a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., a private-equity company based in New York for US$7.4 billion
• McDonald’s Corp. as Venezuelan counsel in the US$700 million sale of approximately 1,600 restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean to a franchisee organization led by Wood Staton
• Ashmore Energy International (AEI) in the sale of Vengas, C.A., the leading Venezuelan domestic gas distributor, to PDVSA Gas
• ABN Amro and Econoinvest Casa de Bolsa in the tender offer for Compañia Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV) made by the Government of Venezuela for US$1.7 billion
• The Board of Directors of C.A. La Electricidad de Caracas (EDC) in the tender offer for EDC made by Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) for US$900 million
• Telefonos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (Telmex) and America Movil, S.A. de C.V. in their agreement with Verizon Communications, Inc. to acquire Verizon’s equity interest in Compañia Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV) for US$676.6 million
• The AES Corporation in its US$1.8 billion unsolicited tender offer for C.A. La Electricidad de Caracas
• Sidor Ternium in its US$1 billion and US$1.8 billion financial restructurings
• Empresas Polar in its US$501 million negotiated tender offer for Mavesa S.A.

Languages

Spanish, English and Italian

Memberships

Bar Association of the Capital District, Caracas, Venezuela.

Education

He studied law at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas (JD, Summa cum laude, 1990)