On September 28 and 29, Alcogal participated as a sponsor of the STEP regional conference that was held with great success in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Professionals specializing in trusts and estate planning gathered in order to exchange knowledge and experiences with the main regional players of the patrimonial planning sector.

STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) has as its main purpose to promote among its members the highest professional standards in relation to inheritance and estate planning.

Raúl Zúñiga from Panama and associate Jacqueline Schwartz from Uruguay attended the conference, whose central theme was "Where Common Law and Civil Law converge. The Crossroads of the Future."

On October 5 and 6, Alcogal was pleased to welcome distinguished lawyers from the region who participated in the Meritas annual regional meeting.

Meritas, with presence in over 89 countries, is the largest and most respected global alliance of independent law firms whose objective is to provide a full range of legal services and connect members with qualified experts around the world.

Alcogal acted as legal counsel to Grupo Mundial Tenedora, S.A. and Banco Panameño de la Vivienda, S.A. (Banvivienda) in the exchange process of up to 34,000,000 non-accumulative preferred shares without voting rights of Banco Panameño de la Vivienda, S.A. (Banvivienda) for non-accumulative preferred shares without voting rights of Grupo Mundial Tenedora, S.A.

The exchange process was done through the Panama Stock Exchange, where we played a key role since exchange proceedings are complex and uncommon in the Panamanian market. The transaction closed in July 2017.

Partner Arturo Gerbaud, along with associate Rafael Marquínez, were in charge of this transaction.

Alcogal advised Grande Investment Corp. in the negotiation for the acquisition of a controlling interest of Petroamerica Terminal S.A. (PATSA) by VTTI B.V. We collaborated with the review, negotiation, and closing of the Stock Purchase Agreement, Shareholder´s Agreement, and other transactional documents. The acquisition totaled US$75 million.

Petroamerica Terminal S.A. is a logistics center for oil products with storage facilities for 1.1 million barrels, situated at the Pacific Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal.

Partners Alejandro Ferrer and Raúl Borrell participated in this transaction.