Jonathan P. SERRANO

Introduction

Jonathan Serrano is a senior partner of PunoLaw and heads the banking and finance practice of the firm.

Prior to joining the firm in 2005, Serrano worked with Baker & McKenzie (Manila office), and was seconded to the Baker & McKenzie Sydney office, where he worked with the latter’s banking and finance practice group.

His practice focuses on banking and financial institutions regulation, project and infrastructure finance, acquisition finance, notes/bond issuances, syndicated lending transactions, M&A, real estate project structuring and development, public-private partnerships, and corporate and commercial law.

Serrano has advised project developers in various industries, including energy, infrastructure and real estate, on their financing transactions with both local and overseas lenders. He has extensive experience in acting as counsel for foreign clients in major M&A transactions and advises both foreign and local clients on structuring of investments, as well as joint venture and partnership issues.

He has recently advised the Asian Development Bank and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation in connection with the successful bidding for the privatisation of the Caliraya-Botokan-Kalayaan hydro-electric power plants. He has been engaged as a public-private partnership Key Legal Expert (Philippines) of the Philippine Public-Private Partnership Centre in connection with the development of critical infrastructure facilities. He currently acts as a corporate secretary for several Philippine companies engaged in energy, infrastructure, real estate and medical services – regularly advising them on corporate governance and regulatory issues.

In addition to his transactional and advisory work, Serrano has been a resource speaker on financing Philippine infrastructure and power projects in various conferences, and is consistently cited as a leading lawyer in the field of project finance by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) 1000.

Recent representative engagements:

• Mitsui & Co in connection with its acquisition (via tender offer) of shares in Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, one of the major conglomerates in the Philippines engaged in various industries
• PSALM Corporation and Asian Development Bank in connection with the bidding for the privatisation of hydropower facilities in Laguna, Philippines
• Vena Energy in connection with several project financing transactions of renewable energy power plants in the Philippines
• Rockwell Land Corporation in connection with the development of several mixed-use condominium and horizontal projects all over Luzon and the Visayas, Philippines

Education

• University of the Philippines College of Law, Juris Doctor, 1994
• University of the Philippines School of Economics, Bachelor of Science in Economics, 1990