The banking and finance department led by partner Luis Branco has had involvement in a lot of refinancing and project financing transactions during the last year, as increased bank liquidity allows the sector to re-emerge post crisis. Although generally tending to work on the bank side, acting for most of Portugal’s largest banks on a regular basis, the firm advises on the borrower side on occasion.

The debt market in Portugal has come to a halt recently, and as a result the capital market team has been far more active on the equity side. Despite this the firm was active in a couple of transactions, for instance Luísa Soares da Silva advised Energias de Portugal (EDP) with the issue of €1 billion of notes due 2022, under its €12.5 billion programme.

The corporate practice remains strong, and despite a faltering market the firm has acted on several M&A mandates in the last year. Representative highlights include the acquisition of Spanish football club Valencia CF for €400 million by Meriton Holdings, a complex deal that included the refinancing of the club’s debt. Due in part to an increase in inward private equity investors, the firm has also acted on private equity M&A deals, as well as offering regulatory advice. Examples include advising Oaktree Capital Management with the formation of Oaktree European Principal Fund III. On the equity side the practice advised Banco Comercial Português on a share capital increase of €2.24 billion of new ordinary shares offered to existing shareholders. Working alongside a number of global firms, a key highlight was the firm’s extensive work for construction company Mota-Engil SGPS and its subsidiary Mota-Engil Africa. Closing in November 2014, transactional work included the distribution of 20% of Mota-Engil Africa’s shares to the shareholders of Mota-Engil SGPS, and the proposed floating of the company on the LSE, an idea eventually scrapped in favour of listing on Euronext Amsterdam. The matter was valued at over €2 billion.

A leader in project finance, the firm has long worked on financing in sectors including energy, transport, infrastructure and public projects, both domestically and in lusophone Africa, where MLGTS has a number of associate firms. During the last year the firm was most active with the financing of wind farms, assisting on the financing of several across Portugal for a number of companies including Parque Eólico and Terras Altas de Fafe, as well as Ancora Wind for whom they worked with Galp Energia to fund a 400KV farm worth €175 million.

Led by partner Helena Soares de Moura the multidisciplinary restructuring and insolvency team focuses primarily on out of court, pre-insolvency negotiations, and is seeing a raft of restructurings, rather than insolvency matters, this year. A key highlight for the team was orchestrating a recovery plan for Hagen Engenharia, a part of the construction and engineering firm Elovo Group, with the firm conducting negotiations between the company and its creditors.