Practice
Michael McGuinness is a partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group and leads the firm’s Latin American M&A work. A fluent Spanish speaker of Mexican descent, he manages complicated, cross-border transactions in the region, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. He also maintains an active U.S. M&A practice. Over his career, Mr. McGuinness has coordinated large, multi-functional deal teams in multiple jurisdictions and advised senior business leaders on strategic as well as legal issues related to significant cross-border M&A transactions.

Mr. McGuinness returned to Shearman & Sterling in 2009 from General Electric, where he held a number of senior legal roles, including General Counsel of GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies. While at GE, he received CEO Awards in recognition of his work on the sale of GE Insurance Solutions, the sale of a majority interest in Genpact and the purchase of Smiths Aviation.

• GrupoSura in its approximately $3.6 billion acquisition of ING’s Latin American pensions, life insurance and investment management operations and its related co-investment transactions with General Atlantic Partners and the IFC
• Anglo American plc in its $1.08 billion sale of Moly-Cop and AltaSteel to OneSteel Limited and its $5.4 billion sale of a 24.5% interest in Anglo American Sur, comprising certain of Anglo American’s copper assets in Chile, to Mitsubishi
• Industrias Bachoco in the purchase of OK Foods, its inaugural acquisition in the US
• JBS SA in its joint venture with US-based Link Snacks, Inc.
• JBS USA in its acquisition of shares of Pilgrim’s Pride from Pilgrim Interests, Ltd.
• JBS in its $2.8 billion acquisition of a majority stake and certain assets of Pilgrim’s Pride through a US bankruptcy proceeding
• Indústrias Romi SA, the Brazilian machine tools manufacturer, in its unsolicited offer to purchase the US company Hardinge Inc.
• Eton Park Capital Management LP in its controlling equity investment in HydroChile SA, a small hydroelectric energy company in Chile
• CSN, the Brazilian steel company, on the US law aspects of its unsolicited $5.6B offer to purchase, Cimentos de Portugal, SGPS, SA
• Cyrela Commercial Properties in its Brazil-focused $400 million real estate venture with GIC Real Estate (the real estate investment arm of the Singapore Investment Corporation) and CPPIB US RE-A (a subsidiary of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)
• General Electric Company in its $4.8 billion purchase of Smiths Aerospace, the aviation division of Smiths Group plc
• General Electric Company in its $9.3 billion sale of GE Insurance Solutions, GE’s property and casualty business, to Swiss Re
• General Electric Company in its $825 million sale of Medical Protective Liability, GE’s malpractice insurance business, to Berkshire Hathaway
• General Electric Company in its $500 million sale of majority interest in Genpact (formerly known as Gecis), GE’s business process outsourcing business, to General Atlantic Partners and Oakhill Capital
• General Electric Company in its $800 million sale of Global Exchange Services, GE’s information services division, to Francisco Partners
• SmithKline Beecham plc in its $1.63 billion sale of anti-viral drugs Famvir and Denavir/Vectavir to Novartis AG and $1.23 billion sale of anti-emitic drug Kytril to Roche Holding AG
• Intermagnetics General Corporation in initial unsolicited bid for Invivo Corporation and in later friendly $152 million acquisition of Invivo
• Florida Crystals Corporation in its $125 million purchase of Tate & Lyle plc’s U.S. sugar refining operations, including the Domino brand

• Quest Diagnostics Incorporated in its strategic alliance with Enterix Inc., a provider of colorectal cancer screening tests
• Thomson Corporation in its strategic alliance with Unext, Inc., an online provider of business education backed by an academic consortium including Stanford and Columbia
• Morgan Stanley Global Emerging Markets Limited Partners as lead investor in equity investment in Agrositio.com Inc., a B2B eMarketplace for agricultural products in Latin America, and as co-investor in equity investment in Asista.com Inc., a B2B eMarketplace for indirect goods in Latin America

• Chase Securities Inc. in its $500 million debut sovereign bond offering for the Republic of Chile and ABN AMRO Inc., Chase Securities Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., respectively, in separate sovereign bond offerings for the Republic of Uruguay totaling in aggregate $700 million
• Bunge Ltd. in its restructuring of ownership and governance structure and in completion of $281 million initial public offering

• Mexican project company Cantarell Nitrogen Company S.A. and its principal shareholders – BOC Group, Inc., Marubeni Corporation and Westcoast Energy Inc. – in the start-up, construction and $623 million limited recourse financing of world’s largest nitrogen production facility

• Fondo Mexicano para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza in its fundraising activities in connection with the development of an IMAX film on the migration of the Monarch butterfly
• Domestic partner of victim of WTC tragedy before Federal Victims Compensation Fund
• Major international investment bank and certain of its executives and directors as defendants in connection with civil and criminal litigation in Argentina, Uruguay and the United Kingdom

• American Bar Association
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• International Bar Association

• “Investment: The Middle East Comes to Latin America,” Americas Quarterly, Spring 2010 (with Manuel Orillac). http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1529
• “Corporate Governance for Foreign Private Issuers: Overview,” Corporate and Securities web service at http://uscorporate.practicallaw.com/2-386-6205, PRACTICAL LAW COMPANY (w/R. Ellison, F. Camara & F. Sakai, 2009)
• “Going Private Transactions: a Practitioner’s Guide,” 30 THE DELAWARE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE LAW 2 (with T. Rehbock, 2005)
• “The Politics of Labor Regulation in North America: a Reconsideration of Labor Law Enforcement in Mexico,” 21 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW 1 (2000)
• “The Landscape of Labor Law Enforcement in North America: an Examination of Mexico’s Labor Regulatory Policy and Practice,” 29 LAW & POLICY IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, THE INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL OF GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER 365 (1998)
• Recent Development, The Protection of Labor Rights in North America: a Commentary on the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, 30 STANFORD JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 579 (1994)
• “Hacia una Política Social para América del Norte: Ensayo sobre la Importancia de la Carta Social y el Fondo Estructural Europeos para el TLCAN, in MÉXICO, ESTADOS-UNIDOS, CANADA,” 1991-92 at 131 (Gustavo Vega Canova ed., 1993)