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Alvaro J. Mestre
Partner
Alvaro Mestre is a US lead of our Energy & Natural Resources Group and a partner resident in the Washington DC office, as well as being 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, equipment 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. Throughout his career, he has represented clients in diverse forms of cross-border corporate transactions, including renewable (wind, solar and geothermal), as well as conventional power plants, hydrogen fuel cell projects, lithium and other critical mineral extraction projects, 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.
- Representing a consortium of US companies collectively pursuing the development of various rail and logistics projects in Africa designed to build sustainable economic corridors that link various sub-Saharan African nations and provide safe and reliable supply chains to bring agricultural and mineral resources from interior sources to Atlantic ports.
- Representing a leading Mexican energy infrastructure company in connection with the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC), and service and maintenance (SMA) of two adjacent wind power projects 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.
- Representing the developer of a large-scale geothermal power and critical minerals extraction and production project sited in the US, with respect to all offtake arrangements.
- 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 a leading business group in the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets of the Dominican Republic in the negotiation and formation of a strategic alliance with a global energy company, resulting in a combined network of commonly branded service stations and the expansion of the respective businesses in various sectors, including natural gas, solar, and other renewable energies.
- 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 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 Spanish 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.
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
- Legal 500's US/Mexico Private Practice Powerlist 2022, 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”
- Recognized for Projects and Energy in Legal 500’s Latin America 2021 guide for international firms in Latin America
- Highly Regarded Lawyer, IFLR1000 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014 (Energy and Infrastructure, Project Development and Project Finance in the US)
- Named a Top Latino Lawyer in 2018 by Latino Leaders magazine
- Development counsel on the Los Ramones Sur Project – Project Finance International’s 2015 Americas Oil & Gas Deal of the Year
- Development counsel on the Los Ramones Sur Project – IJGlobal’s Latin America Midstream Oil and Gas Deal of the Year, 2014