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Pedro O. Gamundi
Partner
Pedro O. Gamundi focuses on international commercial and financial transactions and on complex cross-border labor, litigious, reorganization and insolvency matters. He assists multinational clients in the structuring and placement of foreign direct investments in different sectors of the Dominican Republic’s economy, and advises them while negotiating, executing and securing international financial transactions, including institutional private lending, asset-based lending, project financing and private offerings. He also advises on banking, insurance, monetary, taxation, aviation, telecommunications, energy, mining and environmental matters.
Pedro is a partner assigned to our Financial Services and Latin America Practice Groups, with extensive experience and expertise on international financial transactions and banking and securities regulatory matters. For nearly 10 years, he acted as lead external Dominican counsel to a major banking group with operations in several Latin American and European countries, as well as in Puerto Rico and Florida in the US. In such capacity, he assisted this group in obtaining a license to operate as a full-service commercial bank in the Dominican Republic and acquiring a duly licensed insurance company. For seven years, he sat with the board of directors of the local bank as its external counsel.
Pedro also co-leads the Labor & Employment and Aviation teams of the Santo Domingo office. He works closely with the firm’s Restructuring & Insolvency and FinTech Practice Groups, and the Automotive & Transportation and Sports & Entertainment Industry Groups, and is actively involved in the local litigation matters concerning his clients. He is a member of the firm’s Legal Personnel Committee, responsible for the evaluation, promotion and compensation of the firm’s non-partner legal personnel.
Having taught economic law and foreign investment law for a number of years at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) in Santo Domingo, from 2008 to 2012, Pedro acted as coordinator of the Master’s in Business Law and International Litigation program jointly offered by PUCMM and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain. From 1991 to 1992, he worked as a consultant to the Harvard Institute for International Development and the United Nations Development Program in the tax reform project for the Dominican Republic.
From 2000 to 2012, he served as a member, vice president and then as president of the board of directors of Fundación Dominicana de Desarrollo (FDD), a not-for-profit organization recognized as a regional pioneer in adopting microfinancing as a tool for social promotion and economic development. In 2014, Pedro became a founding member of the Georgetown Law Alumni Latin America Advisory Board, in which he continues to serve to this date.
- Acting as Dominican counsel to Banco Popular Dominicano, The Bank of Nova Scotia and other banking institutions as lenders, and JP Morgan Securities and Scotia Capital as Initial Purchasers, in the refinancing of US$533 million senior secured notes issued by Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI, S.A. (AERODOM) through a notes offering under Rule 144 A/Reg S and a syndicate loan. The complex deal involved three separate transactions, including a tender offer of the existing 2012 bond issue; the offering of a US$317 million senior secured notes; and a US$216 million senior secured lending facility by local and international banking institutions.
- Acting as Dominican legal counsel to Advent International Corporation and its subsidiaries Advent Airports, B.V. and Latin America Airport Holdings, Ltd., a private fund conglomerate specialized in the acquisition, management and operation of airports, in the sale of all of the shares of AERODOM to Vinci Airports, SAS, an international airport operator based in France.
- Representing a Mexican hotel group in a comprehensive due diligence process (covering corporate, contractual, labor, tax, litigious and environmental aspects) leading to its proposed acquisition of the hotel facilities and related businesses owned by a major hotel chain in various locations in the Dominican Republic.
- Acting as local counsel to an international telecom carrier licensed to operate in the Dominican Republic, to provide advice on the existing legal framework for the implementation of a mobile payments system, a cutting-edge project involving telecom and financial regulatory issues, and to assist in the implementation phase of the project, including drafting, negotiating and executing various complex agreements with the strategic partners of our client.
- Acting as Dominican Republic counsel for a major US investment bank as sole initial purchaser in the successful issuance by Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI, S.A. (AERODOM) of US$550 million of 9.250% senior secured notes due 2019 under Rule 144A. AERODOM has an exclusive right to operate, maintain and develop the six airports that comprise the public airport system in the Dominican Republic, including Las Américas International Airport located in Santo Domingo, the country’s largest city. This is considered the largest international bond offering, at the lowest interest rate, by a private corporation in the history of the Dominican Republic.
- Acting as general Dominican counsel for an international banking group with offices in Venezuela, Panama, Miami, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Spain in obtaining a license to operate as a multiple services bank in the Dominican Republic, and while operating and expanding in the country.
- Acting as lead Dominican counsel for a major global brewing company in performing a comprehensive due diligence process, and rendering the corresponding reports, leading to a potential acquisition of a stake in the shares of the largest brewery in the Dominican Republic, as part of a private bid which was eventually won by a competing player in the brewery business.
- Acting as Dominican restructuring counsel to the second largest telecom carrier in the Dominican Republic and the only Dominican company ever listed on the New York Stock Exchange in an extremely complex restructuring involving more than US$650 million in debt and presenting multiple cross-border legal issues.
- Representing a US-based investment bank in connection with the successful issuance of US$250 million in senior secured notes by a high-end real estate development project in the Southeast Dominican Republic, primarily to finance the development of its 300-acre complex.
- Representing a leading global glass manufacturer and its subsidiaries in complex and protracted litigation against a Dominican Republic-based glass manufacturer and its related entities. The work has included obtaining the recognition and enforcement of four AAA arbitral awards through proceedings conducted before and after the enactment of the Dominican commercial arbitration law, which have become landmark cases in the Dominican Republic.
- Representing a Spain-based real estate group in connection with the acquisition and development of two properties in Macao, Punta Cana, and the development and construction of a luxury vacation golf project including apartments and villas.
- Representing a Mexico-based hospitality company in the process of building a luxury hotel in Macao, Punta Cana, with a total investment estimated at more than US$250 million, which, upon completion, became the largest Mexico-owned investment in the tourism and hospitality sectors within the Dominican Republic.
- Acting as Dominican counsel for three major US airlines operating to and from the Dominican Republic, including assistance while obtaining necessary permits and certificates of exploitation from the general directorate of civil aeronautics, and rendering general advice on regulatory, corporate, tax, contractual, litigation and labor matters.
- Representing several financial institutions that provide aircraft financing to clients located in the Dominican Republic, including assistance and advice in the process of preparing and revising loan documents, securing credit through aircraft mortgages and promissory notes, and issuing legal opinions on the validity and enforceability of the transaction documents.
- Acting as lead special counsel to the Central Bank and the government of the Dominican Republic in the international public bidding process calling for the exploitation of the sulfides gold deposits of the gold mine Pueblo Viejo, and thereafter in the drafting, negotiation and execution of a Special Lease Agreement of Mining Rights with the winner of the bid.
- Serving as lead special counsel to the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic in conducting a comprehensive due diligence and rendering the corresponding report on certain assets of the second-largest commercial bank of the country, and the credits and other facilities extended to related parties, as part of the bailout of such bank.
Education
- Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena, Master Degree, 1998
- Georgetown University, LL.M., 1991
- Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena, LL.B., cum laude, 1988
Admissions
- Dominican Republic, 1988
Languages
- English
- Spanish
- Recognized by Chambers Global and Chambers Latin America 2023 as a leading lawyer for corporate and commercial law, Dominican Republic
- Recognized by IFLR1000 2022 as a leading lawyer for banking and financial and corporate work, Dominican Republic
- Highly regarded in IFLR1000 2019 for banking and capital markets in Dominican Republic
- Named as a Top Latino Lawyer in 2018 by Latino Leaders magazine
- Recognized as a leading individual in the field of corporate/commercial and labor and employment by Chambers Global 2017
- Recognized by The Legal 500 2015 as a leading lawyer for corporate and finance, dispute resolution and real estate and tourism, Dominican Republic