Bio

José María Eyzaguirre B. leads the Mergers & Acquisitions, M&A, practice at Claro & Cia. He started at Claro & Cia.’s litigation incubator and over time evolved into business practices, specializing on corporate matters in general with an emphasis on Cross-Border Financings, including Project Finance and, most visibly, M&A. In M&A, he represents the Cueto family and LAN Airlines (today LATAM Airlines Group S.A.), in their business combination with the Brazilian TAM Airlines effective in 2012, and which was granted the M&A Deal of the Year 2012/2013 awards by the specialized publications IFLR and Latin Laywer. Since 2011, Mr. Eyzaguirre represents in Chile the interests of Anglo American plc, a company that engaged the services of Claro & Cia. to defend it in its legal battle against the Chilean state-owned copper giant Codelco, which ended with a settlement that originated an association for the exploitation of Los Bronces among them and Mitsubishi Corporation. In the recent past he represented Walmart Stores Inc. in the acquisition of the Chilean retailer D&S through a tender offer; acted on behalf of French company Nexans in the acquisition of the wire and cable business of Chilean public company Madeco, with businesses in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru; and represented the Canadian Hydro-Quebec in the divestiture of its interest in the Chilean electricity transmission utility Transelec. Other representative transactions in M&A include the Canadian company Potash Corporation and its hostile entry into the Chilean public company Soquimich and the acquisition by The AES Corporation of the Chilean generation utility Gener, subsequently named AES Gener. On the Banking and Finance side, Mr. Eyzaguirre has represented multiple foreign banks with interests in Chile. Recently, he acted for HSBC in the financing of the acquisition of FASA by Casa Saba. In Project Finance he has led numerous transactions for foreign lenders and monoline in toll-road, airport, mining, oil and gas pipelines and other energy projects in Chile. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors of the publicly traded companies LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (LAN - Santiago Stock Exchange), Soquimich S.A.(SQM – Santiago Stock Exchange) and Walmart Chile (WMTCL - Santiago Stock Exchange). Mr. Eyzaguirre has been consistently ranked as a star individual and top tier in Corporate, M&A and Banking and Finance by Chambers since 1999, and named as a leading practitioner of complex transactions in M&A and Banking and Finance by LatinLawyer, IFLR, PLC and The Legal 500, among other specialized publications. He was admitted to practice in New York in 1988. He joined Claro & Cia. in 1982, spent years 1987-1988 with Shearman & Sterling, in New York, and became a partner of Claro & Cia. in 1993. Languages: Spanish and English.