Gunter Schwandt

Practice Areas

Gunter specializes in capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, fintech, structured finance, secured transactions and cross-border lending. Gunter is an expert in highly complex public issuances and securitizations and has developed in-depth expertise in CKDs (development capital certificates) and FIBRAs (the Mexican equivalent of a U.S. REIT), advising sponsors and underwriters alike.

Career

Gunter spent a year working at international law firm Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago. He received his LLM (with honors) from the Northwestern University School of Law and a Certificate in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management. He graduated as an attorney (with honors) from the Universidad Iberoamericana.

Professional Memberships

He currently sits as independent member of the board of directors of Mercado Pago, Mercado Libre´s licensed fintech entity in Mexico.

Publications

The International Capital Markets Review, 13th Edition, 2023; Technology M&A, Fintech Lexology Getting The Deal Through, 2023; Mexico Fintech Comparative Guide, Legal 500, 2023 and Lexology Getting The Deal Through 2nd Edition, 2020.

Work Highlights

To date he has advised the sponsors in the structuring and launch of a total of nine structured funds (CKDs and CERPIs) placed in the Mexican Stock Market, focused on the real estate industry and the energy and infrastructure sectors, as well as on four FIBRA transactions, focused on the retail and hotel industries.

On the corporate M&A side, Gunter advised MetLife in the sale of its Mexican pension fund business to Principal Financial Group, and Pemex in the sale of its 50% stake in Gasoductos de Chihuahua to IEnova for USD$1.325 billion.

Gunter also advised Grupo Salinas in its joint venture with Televisa in Iusacell, the later unwinding of such joint venture and the ultimate sale of Iusacell to AT&T for USD$2.5 billion, which constituted a major milestone for the Mexican telecoms sector as it signified the entry of one of the major global telecoms operators to the Mexican market. He also advised Grupo Werthein as to Mexican legal matters in its purchase of certain LatAm assets of AT&T.

He regularly advises domestic and international fintech entities and startups in the structuring and deployment of their business models in Mexico.