"An excellent attorney. He is very dedicated to his clients and is highly responsive. He is a well-rounded lawyer with deep knowledge of project finance transactions."
Chambers Latin America 2025
"Our go-to lawyer for international transactions. We appreciate his strategic advice."
Chambers Latin America 2025
Up and Coming – Corporate/M&A: International Counsel
Chambers Latin America 2025
Up and Coming – Project Finance: International Counsel
Chambers Latin America 2025
"A very strong lawyer who is able to handle significant workload."
Chambers Latin America 2024
Next Generation Partner – Projects & Energy
The Legal 500 Latin America 2024
Ranked – Latin America’s Top 100 Lawyers
Latinvex 2024
Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation
Lawdragon 2024
"Very thorough."
Chambers Latin America 2022
"Good at negotiating... and making tough calls."
Chambers Latin America 2022
Profile
Carlos Ardila advises clients on cross-border corporate and financing transactions in the US and Latin America, with a focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors.
Carlos brings more than a decade of experience representing corporate sponsors, private equity firms, lenders, developers, multinational corporations, and governmental entities on complex financings, acquisitions and divestitures involving:
Renewables
Traditional power
Oil and gas
Sovereigns and multilaterals
He forges trusted relationships with clients and local counsel to devise creative solutions to complex challenges.
With deep roots in the Latin America market, he leverages a global perspective and broad transactional experience across jurisdictions to execute strategic corporate and finance deals. Carlos has practiced in New York; Buenos Aires; São Paulo; and Washington, D.C. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, he is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and proficient in Chinese.
Carlos maintains an active pro bono practice, including working on a first-of-its-kind “blue bond” issuance to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects in the Seychelles and representing clients in developing countries through the International Senior Lawyers Project.
Experience
Carlos' representative experience includes advising:
Private Equity
CDPQ on acquiring an 80% stake in Enel Green Power’s renewable power portfolio in Mexico for US$1.4 billion that involved an innovative build, transfer, and operate model, which Infrastructure Investor shortlisted as an Infrastructure Deal of the Year
Global Infrastructure Partners on its:
Joint venture with Grupo Romero to acquire a 50% stake in Trabajos Maritimos (Tramarsa), a Peru-based port infrastructure platform
US$441 million acquisition of a 49% stake in AES Andes’ renewable energy portfolio in Chile and the related project financing, which LatinFinance recognized as the Renewable Energy Financing of the Year
Acquisition of Atlas Renewable Energy, the second largest independent renewables developer in Latin America, and the related acquisition financing
Matrix Renewables on the project financing of its Los Llanos portfolio, the first non-recourse long-term financing project for solar photovoltaics or wind in Colombia, which Proximo named its Latin America Solar Deal of the Year
IFM Global Infrastructure on its €2.7 billion acquisition of OHL Concesiones, which Latin Finance named as Latin American Private Equity Deal of the Year
Corporates
GM Holdings on the US$980 million concurrent bank and bond project financing of its portfolio of existing and new-build conventional and renewable electricity generation assets in Chile, which Proximo recognized as the Latin America Portfolio Deal of the Year and the Project Finance International Awards named the Americas Power Deal of the Year
Ecopetrol and KNOC, the national oil companies of Colombia and South Korea, respectively, on the sale to De Jong Capital of Offshore International Group, an oil and gas company with upstream operations in Peru
Fermaca Pipeline El Encino on the hybrid bank-bond refinancing of the El Encino – La Laguna 420 kilometers natural gas pipeline and associated compression facilities
WhiteWater Midstream on the construction financing of Whistler Pipeline, a 446-mile natural gas pipeline in Texas, the largest greenfield project financing on record using a hybrid bank-note structure, which IJGlobal and Proximo recognized as North American O&G Deal of the Year
Banks
Lenders on ContourGlobal’s acquisition financing of two natural gas-fired combined heat and power plants with installed capacity of 518 MW in Altamira, Tamaulipas, and Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, Mexico
Purchasers on the note placement refinancing by InterEnergy’s Solar and Wind portfolio companies in Chile, the first private placement in the PMGD sector for solar and wind assets
Sovereigns and Multilaterals
The ad-hoc committee of secured bondholders in the Argentine Province of Chubut’s consent solicitation to modify certain terms of its outstanding US$650 million 7.75% secured amortizing notes due 2026 to reflect the underlying cash flows of the collateral trust securing the province’s payment obligations
The Inter-American Development Bank, as guarantor, in a US$400 million private placement of debt securities issued by the Republic of Ecuador in compliance with the International Capital Markets Association’s Social Bond Principles, marking the world’s first offering of social bonds by a sovereign issuer and which Environmental Finance awarded with its 2020 Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds Award
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as guarantor, in a first-of-its-kind issuance of “blue bonds”, a new financial instrument designed to support sustainable marine and fisheries projects in the Seychelles
Qualifications
Bar Qualification
District of Columbia
New York
Education
JD, Harvard Law School, 2011 cum laude
BA, Oxford University, 2006 First Class
International Baccalaureate, Colegio Anglo Colombiano, 2001
Firm honored by Law360 for advising startups, financial institutions, VCs, digital asset and Web3 participants, and corporations on their most innovative and complex transactions, investigations, litigation, and regulatory matters.
Members of the firm’s Latin America Practice advise Davivienda in its integration of Scotiabank’s operation in Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica, creating a global banking Multilatina in the largest M&A transaction in the Colombian banking industry in recent years.
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