Ms. Tephanie M. Gandia is an IFLR1000-ranked Leading Lawyer-Rising Star in M&A, Banking and Finance and Capital Markets. Ms. Gandia is also consistently recognized by The Legal 500 as a Next Generation Lawyer/Rising Star since 2016 and was named a Recommended Lawyer in 2018.
In what is relatively still a blossoming legal career, Ms. Gandia’s strong professional experience involves acting as counsel to SM Investments Corporation, Udenna Corporation and BDO Unibank and their subsidiaries/affiliates in their acquisitions in the shipping, logistics, energy and banking sectors, which proudly include Udenna’s acquisition of an offshore company holding leasehold rights to a prime property now known as “Clark Global City”. Ms. Gandia was also part of some of the largest counterpart financing transactions in the country to date. More recently, Ms. Gandia advised BDO Group in the restructuring of its leasing business.
Ms. Gandia likewise gathered expertise in Competition Law, a relatively new yet increasingly important and relevant niche in the country’s M&A scene, having represented notifying parties in merger notification reviews, adjudication proceedings, and negotiations of voluntary commitments before the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC). Ms. Gandia has been instrumental in securing approval by the PCC for the merger of public shipping companies, and in acquisitions in the energy, real estate and banking sectors, among others.
Ms. Gandia also handles corporate governance requirements of several publicly-listed companies and of corporations holding secondary licenses from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Maritime Industry Authority, among others.
Ms. Gandia is also counsel to prominent banking and financial industry associations in the country.
Ms. Gandia is a Certified Associate Treasury Professional, having completed the Treasury Certification Program of the Ateneo-BAP Institute of Banking in 2017.
