Full Profile
Franco is a Partner in our Santiago office and leads the Corporate/M&A practice in Chile. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital markets and financing transactions, including debt and equity offerings, credit facilities and project financing.
Franco has worked in deals from a wide variety of industries, including mining, food and beverages, telecommunications, oil & gas, real estate, financial services, education and healthcare. He has advised domestic and foreign clients, from start-ups to listed companies. He also regularly advises clients on corporate governance matters that include conflict scenarios, distressed assets, crime prevention models and data privacy.
Chambers & Partners recognizes Franco in the Latin America region, as an up-and-coming partner due to a wealth of client praise for his assistance with M&A and corporate matters in Chile. Clients have highlighted that “Franco Acchiardo is a very well-rounded lawyer who is always concrete in his recommendations.” Additionally, Franco has been recognized as LACCA Approved in Latin America, reflecting his reputation among the region’s top in-house counsel as a trusted advisor.
Also, recent editions of The Legal 500 recognize Franco as a ‘Next Generation Partner’, who is ‘an excellent lawyer, with outstanding experience for his young age; he constantly provides clever solutions to situations that can potentially bring down a deal. He is also very committed to his clients’ other testimonials highlight ‘Franco Acchiardo’ s high levels of competence and creativity when resolving situations that require innovative solutions. His professional ethics at all levels also stand out, both his commitment to the client and his unrestricted adherence to the law’’ with ‘excellent knowledge of commercial law’ and ‘impressive’. In 2020, Franco received the Client Choice Award by Lexology for his M&A work.
Experience
Corporate Transactional
- Chilean advisor in the sale to Helmerich & Payne of KCA Deutag, a global drilling and engineering company that provides services to the oil and gas industry.
- Participated in Canadian firm Clairvest’s sale of their 50% stake in the Marina del Sol casino group to Valmar, a Chilean group.
- Chilean counsel to Nike in the sale of their domestic distribution business to the Ecuadorian group, Equinox International.
- Advised Cran Group in the partial sale to Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan Board (OTPPB) of Agrícola Cran Chile, a relevant supplier of berries to the Ocean Spray agricultural cooperative.
- Local counsel to Huobi, a cryptocurrency exchange, in respect of its acquisition of Bitex, a LatAm cryptocurrency exchange with operations in, amongst other places, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
- Counselling Minera Tres Valles SpA, a copper mining operation controlled by the Canadian company Three Valley Copper, on an offtake-linked financing.
- Acting for Kapin Capital private equity manager on its acquisition of the liquor retailer Liquidos.cl for the Cordillera fund.
- Advising Degasa Group on the sale of its operation of KFC, China Wok and Wendy’s restaurants in Chile and Argentina.
- Acting in Chile for Jacobs Holding, a global professional investment firm, in its acquisition of private schools’ group Cognita.
- Counsel in Chile to AT&T in its acquisition of Appnexus, a cloud-based software platform.
Venture Capital (VC)
- Advised Banca.Me in its corporate restructuring process to change their parent company to Delaware, USA, and in the closing of a round with Genesis Ventures, a venture capital firm.
- Acted for Tantauco Ventures, a venture capital firm, in the review and analysis of Wibo, a digital ordering and payment software, prior to the investment that the fund made in the start-up.
- Counsel to Cowork Latam, a LatAm coworking spaces provider, in its corporate restructuring process to change their parent company to Delaware, USA, and in the closing of a round with Kapin Capital, a private equity firm.
- Acted for Alacrity, a Mexican venture capital fund, in its investment in Webdox, a contract management software.
