Rodrigo Castelazo is a partner in the Mexico City office. His practice focuses on Banking and Finance, Bankruptcy and Restructuring, Capital Markets and Private Equity.
Mr. Castelazo regularly advises a wide array of clients in complex capital markets and structured finance transactions, as well as in restructuring processes in Mexico. In recent years, Mr. Castelazo has worked on some of the most innovative financial transactions in Mexico, including the first ever co-investment fund established between Mexican pension funds and CDPQ, one of Canada’s largest pension funds, through the largest public offering of equity development certificates (CKDs) to date, three of the largest real estate investments trust (FIBRA) IPOs in Mexico, and one of the first-ever debtor in possession financings under the Mexican insolvency statute. Most notably, Mr. Castelazo has been very active in the Mexican private equity market by advising Mexican and international sponsors in establishing their respective Mexican CKD funds through public listings of CKDs in Mexico, including Riverstone, Prologis, Walton Street Capital, Finsa, Interacciones and Planigrupo. In capital markets, Mr. Castelazo has advised issuers and underwriters in multiple domestic and global equity offerings, including working on IPOs (and follow-ons) by Ienova, FIBRA Macquarie, Terrafina and FIBRA Prologis. In the realm of banking and finance, Mr. Castelazo regularly advises global and domestic financial institutions in financings to Mexican companies or with a Mexican component. Recently, he participated in the first four unsecured real estate revolving financings in Mexico, an innovative financial product that has increased the financing options available for Mexican real estate companies and trusts. Mr. Castelazo has also represented creditors and debtor-in-possession finance providers in some of Mexico’s largest insolvencies in recent years, including Vitro, Comercial Mexicana and Homex.
Mr. Castelazo has been ranked or cited in capital markets and banking and finance by many publications, including Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and IFLR 1000. In 2014 and 2015, Mr. Castelazo was awarded the exclusive Client Choice Award for Securitization and Structured Finance, and again in 2016 he was awarded the Client Choice Award, this time for Capital Markets.
Mr. Castelazo also regularly publishes articles and is a frequent speaker on the legal aspects of structured financing, capital markets and insolvency, including:
- “Mexico: Debt Capital Markets” in the 2016 publication of Getting the Deal Through: Debt Capital Markets, Law Business Research, London, 2016.
- “A Smoother Process”, America’s Regional Report 2016, a publication of the International Financial Law Review, London, 2016.
- The Mexico chapter of the “Insolvency and Corporate Reorganization Survey 2014”, a publication of the International Financial Law Review, London, 2014.
- “Stepping forward: ABS innovation in Mexico – FIBRA E”, conference at the Structured Finance in Latin America Summit, October 21-22, 2015, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, 2015.
- “FIBRA E”, conference at the US Mexico Bar Association, November 4, 2016, Houston, U.S., 2016.
Mr. Castelazo is a member of the New York Bar, and has been professor of International Financial Law at the Universidad Iberoamericana. He worked as a Foreign Associate in the New York office of Sidley Austin LLP in 2007.
Mr. Castelazo was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He received his law degree (JD) from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City in 2002, and obtained his LL.M degree from Harvard Law School in 2006. He also has a postgraduate degree in International Financial Law from the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. He is fluent in English and Spanish.