Jose Manuel’s professional practice is primarily focused on infrastructure, project finance, financing, refinancing, and restructuring of domestic sub-sovereign debt, as well as the financing and investment of social infrastructure projects through service contracts and public-private partnerships (PPPs).

His practice includes the structuring, public bidding, financing, and execution of projects with both public and private entities, as well as government procurement, refinancing and restructuring of public debt of states and municipalities, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate regularization.

In addition, Jose Manuel’s experience includes participation in the issuance and placement of stock certificates in the securities market, and he has advised several financial institutions and entities supervised by the National Banking and Securities Commission regarding compliance with obligations on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

José Manuel obtained his law degree from Universidad Panamericana (2015) and completed a Specialization in Commercial Law from the same university (2016). He received his LL.M. with honors from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law (2024) and subsequently spent a year working at the international law firm Milbank LLP in New York.

Recent Work Highlights

A selection of representative matters on which José Manuel advised includes the following:

• Advised a syndicate of lenders led by Société Générale, Desjardins, and Nomura, as part of the team, in connection with a $600 million data center financing developed by Blue Owl Capital, Chirisa, and PowerHouse. The data center, located in Virginia, has its capacity leased to CoreWeave (a leading AI cloud-computing provider).*
• Advised Cementos Progreso Holdings, S.L., as part of the team, on a $450 million financing for its $950 million acquisition of CEMEX’s operations in the Dominican Republic and related export business to Haiti.*
• Advised the Water Operator of Los Cabos Municipality on the legal terms of an international PPP bidding process to (i) build, operate, and maintain a desalination plant in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, partially funded by the National Infrastructure Fund (Fondo Nacional de Infraestructura); and (ii) implement improvements and operate the potable water system of Los Cabos.
• Advised the Water Operator Agency of Hermosillo, Sonora, as the borrower, on the public bidding process to secure an approximately US$15 million loan provided by Corporación Financiera de América del Norte, S.A. de C.V., SOFOM, ENR, as the lender, for refinancing the agency’s existing public debt.
• Advised a four-member consortium composed of leading technology development companies, through the public bidding process, on the granting and execution of a public procurement agreement for the supply and installation of aviation, security, airport management, passenger processing, telecommunications infrastructure, cybersecurity, and passenger support systems for Mexico City Airport (AIFA), in conjunction with the Ministry of National Defense (Secretaría de Defensa Nacional).
• Advised Dexia Credit Local, as part of the team, on various financial transactions, including the assignment of its loan portfolio totaling MXN $800 million to Banco del Bajío, S.A.*
• Advised the Governments of the States of Veracruz and Nayarit, as part of the team, on restructuring and refinancing operations of their public debt for a total amount of MXN $46,000 million and MXN $5,607 million, respectively.*
• From 2014 to 2016, advised the Mexico City Government, as part of the team, in their annual issuance of trust certificates backed by the Mexican Federal Government, including Mexico City’s green bond issuance in 2016—this was the first green bond issuance by a city in Latin America.*
• Advised the Ministry of Finance of the Mexican Federal Government and the 32 states, as part of the team, in the securitization of the Multiple Contributions Fund (Fondo de Aportaciones Múltiples) through the issuance of trust certificates with the ticker symbol CIENCB 15 on the Mexican Stock Exchange, for an amount of up to MXN $50,000 million, for the development and construction of educational infrastructure.**

*The above representations were handled by José Manuel during his time at Milbank, before rejoining Nader, Hayaux & Goebel.