Mr. Pietrantoni is one of the founding partners of the Firm and was its first managing partner. He has extensive experience counseling clients in corporate and commercial matters and participating in business and governmental transactions both in Puerto Rico and in the Caribbean and Latin America regions. He has structured, negotiated and documented a wide array of transactions, including public offerings and private placements of government and corporate debt securities, sales and purchases of corporate assets, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, commercial loans and public-private partnerships. Mr. Pietrantoni has represented corporations, financial institutions, partnerships, governmental entities, board of directors, individuals, borrowers, lenders, issuers and underwriters.
He has been an advisor to government and private entities in connection with ground-breaking transactions, such as the establishment of the Port of the Americas and the privatization of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company, the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge, certain correctional facilities and Puerto Rico’s principal tollway. He has been a frequent advisor to government and private entities in connection with the drafting and interpretation of legislation, including legislation designed to create new financial products and governmental entities, such as the creation of the Caribbean Basin Financing Authority, the use of structured finance product to refinance debt of the central government, the creation of a new public corporation designed to issue revenue bonds backed by sales tax proceeds, and the creation of Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnerships Authority. In addition, he has represented government and private entities in connection with private equity funds and venture capital investments and in drafting the legal and regulatory regime for such entities.
He has been a frequent speaker at business conferences on topics relating to the Puerto Rico capital market. Mr. Pietrantoni is a member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico subsidiaries of MAPFRE S.A. and is a Trustee of Sacred Heart University, and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association. Mr. Pietrantoni has been internationally distinguished by the Chambers Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers for Business and the Chambers Guide for Latin America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
Engagements:
- Represented Total Petroleum Puerto Rico Corp., in the acquisition of the Puerto Rico fuel distribution business of Esso Standard Oil Company.
- Represented MidOcean Partners, in the acquisition of the largest cable franchise in Puerto Rico.
- Represented Citigroup, in the sale of its retail branch operation and retail securities brokerage business in Puerto Rico.
- Represented MAPFRE PRAICO Corporation and its affiliates, in the acquisition of Canada Life’s health insurance business in Puerto Rico and an insurance broker agency.
- Represented Bayer Puerto Rico, Inc., in the sale of its medical diagnostic business in Puerto Rico to Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics, USA.
- Represented the Government of Puerto Rico, in the sale of its ownership interest in the Puerto Rico Telephone Company.
- Represented Chiquita Brands International, in its issuance of bonds under the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the sale of its fruit operation in Colombia, the sale of its palm oil manufacturing operation in Costa Rica, and the establishment of a joint venture in Nicaragua.
- Represented Borschow Hospital Medical Supplies, in the sale of its distribution business in Puerto Rico.
- Represented PRISA Group, in the structuring and formation of various joint ventures to acquire and develop hotel and residential development projects in Puerto Rico.
- Represented Grupo Punta Cana, S.A., a Dominican corporation, in its acquisition of a joint venture interest in a hospitality and residential development project, a shopping center development project and a water and sewer facility development project in the Dominican Republic.
- Represented Grupo Punta Cana, S.A., in its participation in the RFP process for the privatization of the operation of the Norman Manley International Airport in Jamaica.
- Represented KDC Solar, LLC, in its acquisition of various solar energy projects in Puerto Rico.
- Participated as bond counsel, underwriters’ counsel or disclosure counsel in multiple bond issues of the Government of Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities, including the Highway Authority, Electric Power Authority, Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, Infrastructure Financing Authority, Public Finance Corporation, Industrial Development Company, Government Development Bank, Sales Tax Financing Authority and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He has acted as counsel to many investment banking firms, such as Goldman, Sachs & Co., JP Morgan, UBS, Citigroup Global Markets, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in structuring and documenting financial structures for governmental issuers, such as a $2.4 billion program used to refinance loans made by Government Development Bank to various agencies of the central government, and drafting laws designed to create new financing mechanism for local governmental entities, such as a new sales-tax based revenue bond. Participated as disclosure counsel for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the largest high-yield bond issue sold in the United States municipal bond market.
- Participated in all the major privatization projects in Puerto Rico, acting as counsel to the developer and operator of the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge, the first highway facility privatized in Puerto Rico; counsel to the developer and operator of the first corrections facility privatized in Puerto Rico; and counsel to the government in the development of the Port of the Americas, the sale of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company, and the creation of a public private partnership for the principal toll highway in Puerto Rico.