GOING PUBLIC IN THE REPUBLIC -  Squire Patton Boggs has guided a family-owned company in the Dominican Republic toward what looks to become the island nation’s first publicly traded company, Law.com International’s Amy Guthrie reports. César Iglesias, S.A., a large company that manufactures and imports such consumer goods as laundry detergent and vegetable oil, initially turned to the firm’s Santo Domingo arm—Squire Patton Boggs Peña Prieto Gamundi—with the goal of selling a minority interest in the company to finance international expansion. Those talks morphed into a full-blown corporate restructuring for a company that has been in business for more than 100 years and was owned by multiple branches of the same family. The company began to mull a public offering of shares due to a lowering of domestic tax rates aimed at spurring local capital markets, according to Awilda Alcántara-Bourdier, a Santo Domingo-based partner at Squire Patton Boggs who led the legal team advising César Iglesias. To make that happen, César Iglesias required specialized advice from Squire Patton Boggs in matters related to securities market regulation, as well as adaptations of bylaws and corporate structure to conform with the legal and regulatory framework of the securities market of the Dominican Republic. The company is expected to list shares in May.

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