Santos Y Rios

Santos y Ríos has one of Mexico’s smaller competition practices, but size hasn’t dented its prospects. “We are keen on presenting ourselves as one of the leading specialists in competition,” says Luis Santos who co-founded the firm in 2004 and has handled competition work from the outset. Two associates assist him, including one new addition to the team.

The firm says that over the past year, it has shifted its workload towards cartel and other conduct investigations, rather than mergers which have taken up a majority of the team’s billable hours in the past.

The firm says that in the past year, it has taken on two complex and confidential behavioural matters - one a cartel investigation and the other an abuse of dominance claim. On the mergers front, it has assisted Minera Mexico’s subsidiary, Southern Copper Corporation, in its offer to acquire stock on Frontera Copper. Other clients have included Ferrosur, a railway company caught up in one of Mexico’s trickiest mergers and a related cartel investigation, as well as the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. It is also advising Continental Airlines in its attempt to join the Star Alliance.