DEPARTMENT PROFILE

SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan

Corporate/M&A

2 ranked lawyers

Band 1

Philippines

Asia-Pacific 2022 View ranking table

chambers review

department information

Ranked Lawyers

Chambers Review

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What the team is known for

SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan is a top-class law firm based in the Philippines, occupying a prominent position in the market. Frequently advises major multinational clients on complex cross-border transactions and competition issues. Particularly renowned for its expertise in advising companies that wish to establish their businesses in the Philippines, across sectors ranging from telecommunications to infrastructure. Also has a strong reputation for its work in the real estate sphere, working with a range of international clients on investments in the Philippines. Examples of its clientele include KKR, Metro Pacific and Mitsubishi.

Strengths

One interviewee appreciates that SyCip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan is "always on point in terms of its service and provides a high-level approach and strategy to crafting documentation and air-tight submissions."

Another source comments that they are "really impressed with the firm's briefing and writing," further stating that "they've been smart, responsive and good."

Work highlights

SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan advised BayCorp International and CreditCorp on the Philippines part of the global acquisition by CreditCorp of BayCorp.

Advised KKR on its USD300 million investment in Frontier Tower Associates Philippines, including due diligence on the real property portfolio of Frontier Tower Associates Philippines.

Notable practitioners

Marievic Ramos-Añonuevo is a well-regarded lawyer in the M&A sector in the Philippines. She has over 30 years of experience advising domestic and international clients on project finance and investments.

Rose Marie King-Dominguez has experience advising on joint venture matters and expertise in TMT matters in the Philippines. A source describes her as a "splendid lawyer with years of experience."

Department Information

This content is provided by SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan.

Overview

SyCipLaw’s Corporate/M&A team has acted as counsel in many of the largest investments and M&A deals in the Philippines, shepherding these transactions from initial structuring and due diligence to the preparation of shareholders agreements to the requisite regulatory processes. We are experts in foreign investments, and have helped the top global companies establish their businesses in the country.

We represented the major telecommunications companies in the past decade’s wave of foreign investor interest in the telecoms industry, including First Pacific in its acquisition of a significant interest in the principal local carrier, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company. We have acted for most of the world’s largest cement manufacturers in their local investments, and continue to assist some of them in the integration of local interests as they reorganize globally. In the banking industry, we have participated in many of the major acquisitions and mergers, including the merger of The Bank of the Philippines Islands and Far East Bank & Trust Company, the PCIBank-IBAA merger, and the series of mergers among Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan, with JP Morgan Chase Bank as the surviving bank. In recent years, we have assisted in setting up most of the call centers now operating in the Philippines.