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Gianpiero (JP) Balestrieri
Partner and Global Head, Structured & Project Finance,
Focus, LLC
Gianpiero (JP) Balestrieri, a FOCUS Partner, brings extensive executive
management and investment banking experience representing and advising
investors, companies, developers, borrowers, lenders and acquirers
in connection with all phases of investment and corporate strategy,
business development, origination, valuation, structuring, and closing
for M&A; divestitures; turnarounds; joint ventures; corporate,
project and structured finance transactions. Mr. Balestrieri has
led deal execution in various sectors, including without limitation,
IT, infrastructure services, energy, oil & gas, telecommunications,
transportation; shipping and manufacturing. As the Global Head of
the Structured and Project Finance Group, Mr. Balestrieri has extensive
international experience in managing and closing very complex multi-party
assets, transactions, development, operations and projects in Europe,
Latin America, Africa, Asia, among other Emerging Market regions.
Prior to joining FOCUS, Mr. Balestrieri
advised on divestitures, acquisitions (stock and asset), strategic
equity, debt and restructurings as it relates to structured &
project financing for the development, construction and operations
of existing and new assets. As senior advisor to corporate and project
clients, he successfully led and closed on various transactions
and capital formation products, including without limitation: senior
secured debt; private equity; mezzanine; private placements; turnkey
leases; sale-leasebacks; bridge financing; ABS; factoring; leveraged
buy-outs; SPACs; public offerings (registered/unregistered); and
receivables securitizations.
Formerly, Mr. Balestrieri served as
Corporate Vice President at Optiglobe Communications Inc. where
he was responsible for leading the origination, development, negotiating
and closure of the main IT and infrastructure asset based and corporate
financing and exit initiatives. He led and participated on successfully
closing in excess of $600MM in transactions with lenders, investors,
vendors, partners, systems integrators, and professional services
partners for Optiglobe’s global IT infrastructure operations.
Prior to OptiGlobe, Mr. Balestrieri
was Director/Senior Counsel for General Electric where he led and
was responsible for representing a transaction portfolio of up to
$2.0 billion per year in M&A, buy-outs, structured & project
finance and joint ventures for energy, oil & gas and equipment
technology assets, projects and services in the US, Europe and the
Emerging Markets. He received the GE Excellence Award for successfully
leading and closing strategic workouts, acquisitions and project
finance transactions.
Before GE, he was Deputy General Counsel/Director
at Bechtel-EnergyWorks where he was responsible for developing and
financing independent power production projects. Mr. Balestrieri
also served at Chadbourne & Parke LLP as a Project Finance and
M&A Associate on global capital markets, financing, privatization
and M&A transactions. Before his tenure at Chadbourne &
Parke, Mr. Balestrieri was an Investment Officer at the IFC of the
World Bank Group and completed various transactions in the Emerging
Markets.
Mr. Balestrieri received an Honors BA
in finance/economics (summa cum laude) from the York University/London
School of Economics and a J.D. (Dean’s Fellow/magna cum laude)
and MBA (finance curriculum) at the American University/WCL in Washington,
DC. Mr. Balestrieri is fluent in French, Spanish, Portuguese and
Italian with a working knowledge of Arabic and Greek.
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