Mr Francisco J Illanes > Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos > Santiago, Chile > Lawyer Profile

The eleven-strong banking and finance practice at full-service firm Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos is routinely mandated on complex cross-border and structured finance deals. The department also houses specialists in project finance involving the energy, mining and infrastructure sectors; acquisition finance and domestic corporate financings; and significant restructurings of international and domestic corporations. It additionally fields experts in secured financings for agriculture producers and fish farming operations, as well as derivatives and trade finance. Regulatory work is another key practice for the firm, while fintech is a notable growth area. The team is jointly led by senior partner and finance, banking and capital markets expert Francisco Illanes; Rodrigo Sepúlveda, who routinely advises banks on the financing of electricity distribution and generation projects; and Juan Antonio Parodi, an expert in financing, refinancing, syndicated loans, and infrastructure project finance. Within the associate pool, Sergio Balharry‘s broad practice includes bond issuances, while Teresita Fernández‘s workload covers guarantees and credit documents.

Acting for issuers, investment banks, placement agents, financial advisers and investors, Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos‘ 11-member department routinely advises on public and private debt and equity offerings in both Chile and the international markets. Its expertise ranges from IPOs, securities and private placements to American depositary receipts. The practice is jointly led by senior partner Francisco J Illanes, whose practice specialisms cover finance, banking, M&A and telecoms, in addition to capital markets; Rodrigo Sepúlveda, an expert in the issuance of debt and capital instruments; and Juan Antonio Parodi, who advises issuers and underwriters on domestic and international debt and equity capital markets’ deals. Within the associate ranks, Sergio Balharry‘s experience covers the creation of security interests, while the more junior Teresita Fernández, Constanza Saiz, Glen Rybertt, Cristóbal Thompson and Javiera Diaz round out the group.

Full-service firm Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos houses a practice group 44-strong (including 11 partners) that covers the full range of corporate and M&A work. The group’s representative expertise ranges from joint ventures and private equity / venture capital deals, to the acquisition of private and public companies, domestic and cross-border transactions, corporate mergers and spin-offs, and corporate restructurings. The firm fields multiple highly-rated partners, including: corporate law and contracts specialist Sergio Díez; Gerardo Varela, whose M&A track record includes energy, retail and aquaculture sector deals; Cristián Herrera, an adviser on corporate and transactional laws (as well as foreign investment and securities regulations); corporate, commercial, real estate and M&A expert, Juan Pablo Matus; and Carlos Pérez-Cotapos, who assists with corporate, natural resources and mining law matters. Senior partner Francisco J Illanes, José Luis Letelier and Gonzalo Grez are additional key practitioners, along with younger partner Andrea Saffie. The first line of advisors was further strengthened in July 2023 with the hire of Nicolás Lustig, who returns to private practice after more than 15 years in various in-house positions – most recently some eight years at BHP. Within the firm’s senior associate ranks, María Francisca Salas and Sergio Balharry both advise on M&A deals.

The 13-strong TMT practice at full-service firm Cariola Díez Pérez-Cotapos routinely assists international and domestic IT, telecoms, media and internet companies with their investments in local companies. It also advises on joint ventures, transactional IP and litigation. On the regulatory side, the group houses experts in IT and media projects; while in the data processing segment, the team freqeuntly acts on large infrastructure projects involving technology aspects. The team is additionally certified in cloud services, with several of its practitioners able to code. The technology, privacy and media group’s principal figures are: Rodrigo Lavados, whose broad practice includes software and database-related IP issues, data privacy, fintech regulation, advertising, and entertainment law; senior partner and financial, banking and capital markets department leader, Francisco Illanes; and finance transactions expert Juan Antonio Parodi. Within the senior associate ranks, both Gabriel Pensa and Eduardo Vilches assist with IT, telecoms and data protection work.