Ricardo J. García-Negrón

Biography

Mr. García-Negrón is a securities, corporate and commercial finance attorney who focuses on providing practical advice and creative solutions to clients in a wide variety of business matters and industries, including domestic and foreign banking and financial services, investment management, hospitality, real estate, education, telecommunications, life sciences, healthcare, aviation and energy. He also counsels clients on estate and trust planning and is very active in the entrepreneur ecosystem in Puerto Rico.

He provides advice, negotiates and manages transactions, on a broad range of business matters, including commercial financing, corporate reorganizations, mergers & acquisitions, capital-raising transactions and securities regulatory compliance, secured transactions, project finance and infrastructure/private-public partnerships.  He works extensively with U.S. and international law firms as special local counsel in Puerto Rico for lending transactions, project financings and other complex financial transactions.

His securities transactional experience includes public and private financing offerings, including securities offerings and private placements for emerging and mid-market companies, and venture capital and private equity funds. He advises investment funds and emerging companies in connection with their formation, fundraising, governance and investment activities, including doing business in Puerto Rico.

He also has a broad range of domestic and cross-border transactional experience in the energy sector, representing private equity sponsors, lenders, investors, developers and lessees in the development, acquisition and divestiture of commercial and industrial wind, solar, CHP projects, as well as residential renewable energy portfolios.

Mr.  García-Negrón, who served as Vice-Chair of the Corporate Practice Group until recently, is ranked as one of Puerto Rico’s Leading Attorneys in the Corporate field by Legal 500 and in the Real Estate field by Chambers & Partners in its Latin America Guide. He is also ranked in the Corporate and M&A Law field by the Best Lawyers in Puerto Rico guide.

He is an active member of the Firm’s Pro Bono Program, providing assistance to emerging companies and non-profit organizations and is the Founder and Executive Director of FunCugar ((Fundación Cultural García) an Afro-Puerto Rican non-profit organization dedicated to relieve the poor, distressed and underprivileged, combat community deterioration, and lessen prejudice and discrimination. He is also Executive Director of Consolato REM Brega!!!, an Afro-Puerto Rican non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Puerto Rican artists and art organizations in achieving international exposure.

He has been guest speaker at several events, including a seminar on the Puerto Rico Commercial Transactions Act (PR-UCC), Chapter 9: Secured Transactions, and a networking event for Venture Investing in Puerto Rico discussing the Puerto Rico Private Equity Funds Act.

He joined McConnell Valdés as a Summer Associate in 2007.  While in law school, he was a student practitioner in the Community Development Legal Aid Clinic, and a member of the Pro Bono Practice.

Before joining the Firm, he worked at BearingPoint, Inc. as Senior Management Analyst where he developed solutions to prepare banks and financial services companies to meet Basel II Capital Accord and federal banking regulations on capital requirements and risk control, as well as streamline operations and incorporate technology into their business.

He was a NCAA Division I Athlete and Team Captain (2003-04) of the Ohio State University Men’s Volleyball Team (2001-04).

Representative Transactions

• Served as counsel in the business restructuring of corporate and operational structure of four related private universities in Puerto Rico and Florida with combined 28 satellite campuses and 20,000 students to consolidate accreditation by Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) in compliance with U.S. Department of Education requirements, as well as those of its two major private equity investors.
• Seller’s counsel in connection with the $25 million sale of two hospitals in Puerto Rico and the redemption and repayment of outstanding AFICA Bonds (Tourism Revenue Refunding Bonds, 1999 Series A), which at the time had an outstanding par amount of $17.11 million.
• Counsel in the formation and fundraising of Guayacán Fund of Funds IV, L.P., with a successful capital raise of $84.1M, the largest fund in the Guayacán Family of Funds and also the largest private equity fund raised in Puerto Rico to date.
• Counsel in the formation and fundraising of Guayacán Fund of Funds V, L.P.
• Counsel in the formation and fundraising of the Puerto Rico IDEA Seed Fund, LLC, a new vehicle providing early stage risk capital for local ventures under an unprecedented partnership between the federal government, private partners, and individual investors in Puerto Rico.
• Real Estate counsel in the development and financing of a $209 million regional wind renewable energy project, as well as the development and acquisition of multiple solar energy projects.
• Served as local counsel to Autopistas Metropolitanas de Puerto Rico LLC, an Abertis/Goldman Sachs consortium that was awarded a concession to operate and maintain two major toll roads in Puerto Rico. This is the first public-private partnership project developed under the Puerto Rico Public Private Partnerships Act of 2009.
• Local counsel in Liberty Cable's acquisition of OneLink and Choice Cable, and the consolidation of Puerto Rico cableTV industry.
• Local borrower counsel for incremental term loan facility in the amount of $85,000,000.
• Investor’s counsel in Series A round in form of convertible preferred shares of leading aviation fuel service provider in Puerto Rico.
• Counsel in the reorganization of leading private higher education institution in Puerto Rico.
• Served as bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel in bond issues of Puerto Rico Industrial, Tourist, Educational, Medical and Environmental Control Facilities Financing Authority (AFICA) and Puerto Rico Public Finance Authority.
• Represent Sol Puerto Rico Limited (owner of Shell’s business in Puerto Rico) on all service station network leasing matters.

Practices

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