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Alvaro J. Mestre
Partner
Alvaro Mestre is a partner resident in the Washington DC office and chair of the firm’s Mexico Country Desk. He specializes in cross-border transactions and projects, with expertise in the energy and transportation industries and a regional focus on Latin America.
Project Development
Alvaro represents a mix of investors, developers, owner/sponsors, manufacturers, contractors and other interested parties in the corporate structuring and overall development, construction, management, ownership, operation and maintenance, and financing of global infrastructure projects. He specializes in the energy and transportation industries and has a regional focus on the Americas. Over the course of two decades, he has represented clients in diverse forms of cross-border corporate transactions, including renewable and conventional power plants, fuel transportation and storage projects, light-rail urban transportation projects, and toll roads. He provides his clients with comprehensive transactional advice, including in connection with the formation and structuring of strategic partnerships and consortia.
Mergers and Acquisitions
An integral part of Alvaro’s practice involves the acquisition and divestiture of projects and assets in various industries and sectors.
Latin America
For more than two decades, Alvaro has represented public and private entities in developing some of the most note-worthy and largest infrastructure projects in Mexico and throughout Latin America.
Compliance
Alvaro often advises his clients on compliance matters and has specific experience in connection with the preparation and implementation of compliance programs focused on the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In this capacity, he provides a full array of services, including management-level briefings, in-house training and ongoing consultation services for his corporate clients.
- Representing the Mexican state-owned export credit agency in obtaining a US$600 million credit facility from a syndicate of international banks, which was guaranteed by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and destined for the support of an emergency liquidity program launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide working capital to companies across key exporting sectors of the Mexican economy.
- Representing the seller of a leading e-commerce business specializing in the online sale of essential oils.
- Representing an international infrastructure group with the structuring, drafting and negotiation of energy services agreements (ESAs) in connection with the implementation, operation and maintenance of various energy conservation measures (ECMs) to be installed on residential housing projects sited on US military bases.
- Representing a leading Mexican energy infrastructure company in connection with the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC), and service and maintenance (SMA) of a wind power project to be sited in Baja California, Mexico at the US-Mexico border, with an international electrical grid crossing for the export and sale of power into the state of California, US.
- Representing a leading Mexican private energy infrastructure company in the development of various solar power projects and liquid fuel storage terminal projects in Mexico.
- Representing various affiliates of Pemex in the corporate structure and management, development, construction, operation, ownership and financing of the Los Ramones Project, a natural gas transportation pipeline extending over 1,000 km from Texas to various delivery points in the central western region of Mexico.
- Representing various subsidiaries of a major Chinese construction company in connection with their participation in an Argentine 538 km toll road PPP project in Argentina.
- Representing a leading Spain-based train manufacturer in competing for, negotiating and contracting for the supply and long-term operation and maintenance of light rail vehicles to several major US metropolitan transportation authorities, including in connection with the Maryland Purple Line Light Rail PPP Project.
- Representing various multinational companies in the preparation and implementation of anticorruption compliance programs, including providing management-level briefings, in-house training and ongoing consultation services in connection with projects provided to communities affected by infrastructure development.
Education
- Georgetown University, J.D., 1995
- University of Florida, B.A., with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, 1992
Admissions
- District of Columbia, 1997
- Maryland
Languages
- English
- Spanish
- Recognized for Projects and Energy in The Legal 500’s Latin America 2021 guide for international firms in Latin America
- The Legal 500's US/Mexico Private Practice Powerlist 2019, 2018 and 2017, a distinction that identifies key US individual practitioners “who have developed a strong reputation for their high profile work and engagement in the Mexican market”
- Highly regarded in IFLR1000 2019 for banking, project development and project finance in the US, with an emphasis on the energy, transport and social infrastructure sectors
- Named a Top Latino Lawyer in 2018 by Latino Leaders magazine
- Highly Regarded Lawyer, International Financial Law Review 2018 (Energy and Infrastructure, Project Development and Project Finance in the US)
- Leading Lawyer, International Financial Law Review 2017 (Energy and Infrastructure, Project Development and Project Finance in the US and Mexico)
- Leading Lawyer, International Financial Law Review 2016 (Financial & Corporate in the US)
- Development counsel on the Los Ramones Sur Project – Project Finance International’s 2015 Americas Oil & Gas Deal of the Year
- Leading Lawyer, International Financial Law Review 2014 (Energy and Infrastructure in Latin America)
- Development counsel on the Los Ramones Sur Project – IJGlobal’s Latin America Midstream Oil and Gas Deal of the Year, 2014