26/2/2019 Advent buys Argentine payment company - Latin Lawyer Advent buys Argentine payment company

Fredrik Karlsson

26 February 2019

Credit: iStock.com/PeopleImages

Baker McKenzie LLP in New York, Chicago and has helped US private equity investors Advent acquire a majority stake in Argentine payment company Prisma Medios de Pago for US$724 million.

The New York and Washington, DC offices of Covington & Burling LLP and Beccar Varela in Buenos Aires advised the target company, Prisma, and the sellers. The deal closed on 1 February.

Advent gets a 51% stake in Prisma, while the sellers, Visa International and 14 local banks, retain the remaining 49%. The private equity investor paid 60% of the total amount at closing and will pay the rest over the next five years.

Some 70% of the payment will be made in US dollars, while the remainder is paid in Argentine pesos.

The deal marks the start of the sellers’ complete exit from Prisma. They must divest their remaining 49% over the next three years. This was set out in a divestment plan approved by the Argentine competition watchdog in 2017, after the company was investigated for monopolising the credit cards and electronic payments market.

Prisma is the leading player in ’s merchant acquiring, payment processing and electronic bill payments market. The company is also the second largest operator of cash machines and peer-to-peer transactions.

Beccar Varela’s banking and finance partner Roberto Horacio Crouzel says the involvement of multiple parties, especially from the finance sector, made the transaction challenging. “It was unusually complex because many of the parties are regulated by the , the Argentine Securities Exchange Commission and the Argentine Competition Authority,” he explains.

The transaction is understood to be the largest private equity investment in Argentina since the country’s economic turmoil in 2018, which saw the local peso plunge against the US dollar and inflation rise sharply.

Counsel to Advent

https://latinlawyer.com/article/1180681/advent-buys-argentine-payment-company?utm_source=02%2f26%2f19-11%3a32%3a27-147+-+Deal+of+t… 1/2 26/2/2019 Advent buys Argentine payment company - Latin Lawyer Baker McKenzie LLP

Partners Alan Zoccolillo, Steven Canner and Emeka Charles Chinwuba, and associate Jason Kramer in New York, and partner Garry Jaunal and associate Jae Cho in Chicago

Baker McKenzie (Argentina)

Partners Vanina Caniza, Gabriel Gómez-Giglio, Gustavo Boruchowicz, Francisco Fernández-Rostello, Mercedes Masjuan, Esteban Rópolo and Geraldine Mirelman, and associates Martín Roth, Felipe Graham, Cecilia Máspero, Guido Demarco, Candelaria Munilla, Marcos Sassot, Ayelén León and Ana Paula Gallardo in Buenos Aires

Counsel to Prisma Medios de Pago and Visa International, Banco Santander Rio, Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires, BBVA Banco Francés, , Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, HSBC Bank Argentina, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Argentina), , Nuevo Banco de Santa Fe, Banco Itaú Argentina, Banco Comafi, Banco de la Nación Argentina, Coop and Sucursal de Citibank

In-house counsel to Prisma Medios de Pago - Juan Cruz Alvarez and Eliana Tylkovitch

Covington & Burling LLP

Sergio Urias, Ansgar Simon, Brian Rosenzweig, Peter Schwartz and Nicole Duclos, special counsel Brent Little, and associates Paris Aboro, Laura Torre, Andrew Heather, Sharon Freiman and Christopher Yen, and international visiting associate Laura Bleier in New York, partners Jennifer Saperstein, Michael Nonaka and Kimberly Strosnider, and associates Ashley Sprague, Santiago Zalazar and Jenny Konko Washington, DC

Beccar Varela

Partners Roberto Horacio Crouzel, María Shakespear, María Benson, Agustín Waisman, Pablo Torretta, José Puccinelli and Santiago Montezanti, and associates Carolina Serra, Valeria Kemerer, Gustavo Papeschi, María de los Ángeles Olano, Ivana Grossi, Luciana Liefeldt, Tomás Peña, Juliana Sheridan and Belén Astelarra in Buenos Aires

Practice area : Corporate and M&A, Administrative law, Private equity

Country : Argentina, International

Industry : Banking and

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