Category: Corporate & Sovereign Strategy

New Arbiter in airline merger case Jorge Pinzon, Colombia’s newly appointed industry and trade superintendent, is stepping in to arbitrate the merger plans of Colombia’s two largest airlines after the […]

Along the sandy coast of the Gulf of Mexico rests Brazoria County, Texas. This agrarian community with its roots firmly planted in Texas tradition boasts the Annual Great Mosquito Festival and the Mexican Fiesta Youth Rodeo?not exactly an international city of law. But in an ironic twist of culture clash, this quiet Southern court system was subjected to the judicial version of polar attraction. Because the Texas state court system allows foreign residents to bring personal injury and wrongful death cases into the courts, Bolivia launched a major cross-border product liability suit smack in the middle of Brazoria.

Luis Moreno Ocampo is president of Transparency International for Latin America and the Caribbean and served as a prosecutor in the trials against the Argentine juntas. He is a partner of Moreno Ocampo & Wortman Jofre, a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and currently visiting professor at Stanford. Here, he talks about corruption and the rule of law in Latin America and the forces that are bringing about change in the region.

Latin America is a region ripe with investment opportunities, but also one bedeviled with perils. The future of Latin America’s largest economies; Argentina, Mexico and Brazil, is looking uncertain. Yet […]

Venezuela?s Orinoco oil belt, the largest known hydrocarbon deposit in the world, is a gold mine both to the Venezuelan government and foreign investors. Sponsors Texaco, Phillips Petroleum and Venezuela?s national petroleum company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) signed a $1.1 billion financing as part of the $3.5 billion Hamaca oilfield project in June. Financial backing from the Export-Import Bank of the US helped garner support from commercial banks. But President Chavez wants to pass a new hydrocarbons law (see Promulgations page 8) that threatens to raise future financing costs for oil exploration projects and deter investment in Venezuela?s energy industry.

Empresas Polar, Venezuela?s largest private food-processing company broke new ground this February when it acquired a 98.2% stake in its largest competitor, publicly traded Mavesa, for $522 million. Because Mavesa trades on both the US and Venezuelan securities markets, a tender offer complying with both countries? securities and exchange commissions (SECs) had to be carefully crafted.

Zero-Deficit tax law draws protest Argentina has decided to go for the jugular to fight its crippling economic crisis. The latest reform introduced in July, the Zero-Deficit Law, caps public […]

Antitrust legislation has evolved rapidly in Latin America in recent years and continues to adapt to the region?s every changing market conditions. There is still work to be done but there is now a sense of inevitability about its application across the region. From Chile to Mexico the process is pushing ahead.