Madrid-based Garrigues has hired partner Gerardo Lemus from Kuri Breña Sánchez Ugarte & Aznar. Lemus joins the firm’s Mexico City office.
“Garrigues has an international client base, and it has a constant influx of work from European clients, so I think that, put together with my clients, made it very attractive to me,” explained Lemus.
Lemus’s practice areas include mergers and acquisitions and international finance, and he has expertise in real estate and telecommunications. His hire comes after major telecommunications reforms in Mexico, which were passed in July 2014 with a view to boosting competition in the sector.
“AT&T made a big investment into Mexico telecommunications,” Lemus said. AT&T’s investment includes the company’s acquisition of Nextel Mexico (a Mexican mobile communications company) for $1.9 billion in April 2015. “On the other hand, some of the assets of América Móvil were spun off as a result of the regulation, and some of those assets were actually telecommunications towers. What this tells you is that there is going to be more competition in the telecommunications market in Mexico. In a more competitive marketplace, we are going to be hopefully busier.”
Lemus expects the M&A market as a whole to get busier. “There is going to be an increase in M&A transactions. Part of that is going to be supported by the fact some of the oil auctions from the government have already been awarded, some of the auctions for the new wholesale electric market are already taking place, [and] there are several M&A transactions in the area of renewables," he commented.
Lemus had worked at Kuri Breña since 1992, and as a partner since July 2000.
He earned his bachelor of law from Iberoamericana University in 1991, and in 1997 he obtained his master of laws from the University of Virginia.