Jorge Cevallos Carrera

Meet Jorge:

Lawyer specialized in corporate practice, especially in business mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in various industries, especially food and beverage, electrical sector, and tech businesses.

Jorge has experience leading due diligence processes for the acquisition of companies of all types and actively participating with financial teams or investment banks in defining the strategy for buying or selling. He has negotiated all types of agreements, letters of intent, stock purchase agreements, shareholder agreements, and related transactional documents.

He is also dedicated to business financing in the field of law related to the acquisition, structuring, and management of financial resources, whether through bank loans, bond or debenture issuance, project financing, or venture capital.

He has represented all types of international financial institutions, multilateral agencies, and export promotion agencies in the granting of credit facilities, including equity financing, debt financing, project financing, and commercial credit. Additionally, he has been part of various teams of international lawyers based in major financial centers, which have successfully arranged sovereign debt for Ecuador.

A professional specialized in the electric sector, having served as legal advisor for private companies handling various hydroelectric and photovoltaic projects, and one of the pioneers in implementing private transmission lines and distributed generation systems. He has provided services to state-owned distribution companies, hydroelectric generation companies, and thermoelectric generation companies. He has conducted various analyses related to ancillary services and energy storage through battery systems. He has developed innovative structures within the fiduciary realm to ensure financing for power plants of all types and the temporary transfer of shares or assets related to the public electric power service.

He has been a representative of various foreign companies and as such, he has participated in the deepest knowledge of business work and the different problems that concern a business, and not only the legal vision of it.

He emphasizes strengthening positions aimed at fiscal optimization, due to his extensive experience in the tax field while keeping focus on the ‘end game.’ He always seeks to understand and ensure the financial viability of any client project, providing the essential elements of bankability in drafting the necessary public or private instruments for proper implementation.

M&A Experience

• Jorge is a lawyer who actively participates in the strategic definition of the purchase of businesses and their financing. He has a clear understanding of business dynamics and various business models, which allows him to actively engage with senior management, financial, and commercial areas.

• Advising on the M&A process for the acquisition of two of the most prominent and century-old companies in the food and beverage market, in a transaction exceeding USD 140 MM.

Electrical Expertise

• He has provided advice of all kinds, whether for green field or brown field projects in the electricity sector for companies in charge of private self-generation projects from less than 1 MW to projects of more than 100 MW and public generation projects of up to 1500 MW. He has worked on all kinds of power purchase agreements (PPAs), interconnection contracts, EPC contracts, operation and maintenance contracts and others of a similar nature.

• Advising on the preparation of the offer and bidding aspects for a French multinational company, within the public selection process of the 500 MW Energy Block, in charge of the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Ecuador [Ministerio de Energía y Minas del Ecuador], for the award of about 180 MW of photovoltaic energy.

• He has been an advisor to an Italian economic group for the negotiation and commercial commissioning of 7 photovoltaic plants, and the recovery of the concession, through replacement appeals before the electricity authority of Ecuador.

• Advising on the implementation of the first private transmission line, for more than US $ 60MM.

Financing Experience

• Jorge has been part of the team of international lawyers, for the bond issuance of one of the first two multi-latin companies, an international brand bottler, in the Luxembourg capital market, to raise US $ 1.1 billion.

• In terms of financing, Jorge has acted as advisor to both lenders and borrowers for operations of up to US $1 billion in private transactions; and more than US $ 2 billion in sovereign financing.

• Negotiation of the sovereign guaranteed credit financing for the Sopladora hydroelectric plant, as part of the team of international lawyers hired to obtain the financing from the buyer, by the Eximbank of China for US $ 571 MM.

Corporate Experience

• In the field of fiduciary business structuring, he has established various financial guarantee trusts to facilitate the proper allocation of resources for infrastructure projects.

Formation

• Lawyer & Doctor of Jurisprudence, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), Ecuador.

• Master’s degree in economics and Public Policy, Korea Development Institute, South Korea.

• Master’s Degree in Sustainable Energy Development, University of Calgary, Canada.

Memberships

• Ecuadorian Lawyers Forum.

• Florida Bar Association – International Section.

• Ecuadorian Canadian Chamber of Commerce (serving for 3 terms as a board member).

Certifications/Other

• Professor at the Citizenship and Development Foundation (Hanns Seidel – Germany), for the Anti-Corruption School, Blockchain and Smart Contracts Module (2020 to date).

• Part-Time Professor of Tax Law at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) (Jan. 2006 – 2010).

• Part-Time Professor of Business Law for the Master’s Degree in Real Estate Business Management at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) (2006 – 2009).

• Professor of Economic Law at Universidad Internacional SEK (Oct. 2002 – July 2006)