Carlos Ardila advises clients on cross-border corporate and financing transactions in the US and Latin America, with a focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Carlos brings more than a decade of experience representing corporate sponsors, private equity firms, lenders, developers, multinational corporations, and governmental entities on complex financings, acquisitions and divestitures involving:

  • Renewables
  • Traditional power
  • Oil and gas
  • Sovereigns and multilaterals

He forges trusted relationships with clients and local counsel to devise creative solutions to complex challenges.

With deep roots in the Latin America market, he leverages a global perspective and broad transactional experience across jurisdictions to execute strategic corporate and finance deals. Carlos has practiced in New York; Buenos Aires; São Paulo; and Washington, D.C. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, he is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and proficient in Chinese.

Carlos maintains an active pro bono practice, including working on a first-of-its-kind “blue bond” issuance to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects in the Seychelles and representing clients in developing countries through the International Senior Lawyers Project.

Carlos' representative experience includes advising:

Private Equity

  • CDPQ on acquiring an 80% stake in Enel Green Power’s renewable power portfolio in Mexico for US$1.4 billion that involved an innovative build, transfer, and operate model, which Infrastructure Investor shortlisted as an Infrastructure Deal of the Year
  • Global Infrastructure Partners on its:
    • Joint venture with Grupo Romero to acquire a 50% stake in Trabajos Maritimos (Tramarsa), a Peru-based port infrastructure platform
    • US$441 million acquisition of a 49% stake in AES Andes’ renewable energy portfolio in Chile and the related project financing, which LatinFinance recognized as the Renewable Energy Financing of the Year
    • Acquisition of Atlas Renewable Energy, the second largest independent renewables developer in Latin America, and the related acquisition financing
  • Matrix Renewables on the project financing of its Los Llanos portfolio, the first non-recourse long-term financing project for solar photovoltaics or wind in Colombia, which Proximo named its Latin America Solar Deal of the Year
  • IFM Global Infrastructure on its €2.7 billion acquisition of OHL Concesiones, which Latin Finance named as Latin American Private Equity Deal of the Year

Corporates

  • GM Holdings on the US$980 million concurrent bank and bond project financing of its portfolio of existing and new-build conventional and renewable electricity generation assets in Chile, which Proximo recognized as the Latin America Portfolio Deal of the Year and the Project Finance International Awards named the Americas Power Deal of the Year
  • Ecopetrol and KNOC, the national oil companies of Colombia and South Korea, respectively, on the sale to De Jong Capital of Offshore International Group, an oil and gas company with upstream operations in Peru
  • Fermaca Pipeline El Encino on the hybrid bank-bond refinancing of the El Encino – La Laguna 420 kilometers natural gas pipeline and associated compression facilities
  • WhiteWater Midstream on the construction financing of Whistler Pipeline, a 446-mile natural gas pipeline in Texas, the largest greenfield project financing on record using a hybrid bank-note structure, which IJGlobal and Proximo recognized as North American O&G Deal of the Year

Banks

  • Lenders on ContourGlobal’s acquisition financing of two natural gas-fired combined heat and power plants with installed capacity of 518 MW in Altamira, Tamaulipas, and Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico
  • Purchasers on the note placement refinancing by InterEnergy’s Solar and Wind portfolio companies in Chile, the first private placement in the PMGD sector for solar and wind assets

Sovereigns and Multilaterals

  • The ad-hoc committee of secured bondholders in the Argentine Province of Chubut’s consent solicitation to modify certain terms of its outstanding US$650 million 7.75% secured amortizing notes due 2026 to reflect the underlying cash flows of the collateral trust securing the province’s payment obligations
  • The Inter-American Development Bank, as guarantor, in a US$400 million private placement of debt securities issued by the Republic of Ecuador in compliance with the International Capital Markets Association’s Social Bond Principles, marking the world’s first offering of social bonds by a sovereign issuer and which Environmental Finance awarded with its 2020 Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds Award
  • The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as guarantor, in a first-of-its-kind issuance of “blue bonds”, a new financial instrument designed to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects in the Seychelles

Bar Qualification

  • District of Columbia
  • New York

Education

  • JD, Harvard Law School, 2011
    cum laude
  • BA, Oxford University, 2006
    First Class
  • International Baccalaureate, Colegio Anglo Colombiano, 2001

Languages Spoken

  • English
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Chinese (Mandarin)