The ruling found the Respondents liable for breaking company agreements, interfering with business operations, and engaging in harmful conduct surrounding Continental Towers LATAM Holdings Limited (”Company”), a telecommunications company with operations in Latin America.
In 2014 – 2015, Peppertree invested in the Company and entered into a related Shareholders Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Terra. The Agreement stipulated that after an initial lock-up period of five years, any party could require a sale process to be initiated to sell the Company. In 2020, in accordance with the Agreement, Peppertree initiated the sale process, but Terra refused to sell the Company in breach of the Agreement.
In 2021, Peppertree initiated arbitration proceedings in New York against Terra and certain of its affiliates, including Mr. Hernandez of Saint Helena, California. The Arbitration Tribunal issued an award fully in Peppertree’s favor, ordering that the Company be sold according to the clear process set forth in the Agreement. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York confirmed that award, which was later affirmed by a unanimous appellate panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In 2024, the Tribunal conducted multiple hearing sessions to determine damages Terra and Mr. Hernandez would be obligated to pay. It is noteworthy that the week before the hearing, Terra and Mr. Hernandez engaged their tenth law firm since this arbitration was commenced, as their nine prior law firms had withdrawn over the prior years. It is also noteworthy that during pendency of this arbitration, Mr. Hernandez’ companies were also in litigation with a publicly-held U.S. tower company and two major international private tower companies.
On March 24, 2025 the Tribunal issued its unanimous 200 page award, which was the fifth such award issued in the long-running arbitration. The Tribunal found that Respondents failed to engage in the required process to sell the Company in an ongoing breach of the Company’s governing documents and, instead, engaged in multiple efforts to actively interfere with, and prevent, a sale of the Company, resulting in an award of more than $354 million.
About Peppertree: Peppertree Capital Management, Inc. is a private equity firm focused on making investments in growing communication infrastructure companies. Peppertree was formed in 2004 and is currently investing out of its tenth private equity fund and an evergreen debt fund. Peppertree has more than $6.5B under management and has made more than 170 investments in communication infrastructure companies.
The Award and its accompanying Appendix can be viewed here: “Award” and “Appendix”
