Morais Leitão, winner of IFLR’s award for Portuguese law firm of the year, is a strong player in project finance and “able to deliver excellent legal service”. The project finance group is headed by Luís Branco, one of the top Portuguese lawyers in the field who received numerous commendations for his “excellent experience and negotiation skills.” The largest transaction the department worked on recently was the €717 million ($885 million) concession for the construction of the Litoral Centro motorway. Morais Leitão advised the banks financing the concession (Millennium BCPI, Caixa Banco Investimento, Banco Santander, Depfa Bank and Mizuho Bank). The firm also represented the banks underwriting two other notable transactions: Sirsp’s provision of an integrated telecommunications service for the Portuguese emergency services (for €95 million), and the concession for the development of the Fertagus rail link over the Tagus River (for €103 million). Morais Leitão also advised AGS in its capacity as concessionaire in relation to the negotiation and €64 million financing of the Barcelos water and sewage project. Other clients of the firm include Lusoponte, BES Investimento, Abertis and Fortis Bank.

According to one client, “the market leader in M&A is Morais Leitão, since it deals with the largest and most complex transactions.” Another remarked that “all the outstanding lawyers in M&A work for Morais Leitão.” While this is possibly overstating the situation slightly (PLMJ and Vieira De Almeida have equally strong practices, for example), these comments are a good indication of how highly regarded the firm is in this sector. Its consistent involvement in some of the most interesting recent transactions easily justifies its top-tier position. The firm’s M&A department comprises 16 associates and seven partners, and is led by João Soares da Silva, who “knows a lot and has the most experience in M&A transactions of any individual.” Meanwhile, Nuno Galvão Teles, the firm’s other leading partner, “knows the law, and has good business sense – which is useful in negotiating and closing out deals.” Speaking of these two lawyers in tandem, interviewees praised their capacity for “creative solutions” and “pointing out potential problems.” One of Morais Leitão’s biggest clients is Energías de Portugal (EDP), an electricity and gas supplier. In the last 12 months, Morais Leitão has advised EDP on three large M&A transactions. The first of these was EDP’s purchase of an additional 56.2% of the share capital of Hidroeléctrica del Cantábrico for €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion), which allowed EDP to assume full control of the company. Morais Leitão also represented EDP in relation to its acquisition of a 33.34% shareholding in GDP, a Portuguese gas distribution corporation, for €500 million. And the firm again acted for EDP when it sold a 60% stake in Edinfor Sistemas Informáticos to LogicaCMG Corporate Holdings (LCMG) for €81 million. The sale was executed through a share purchase agreement between EDP and LCMG, which also involved reshaping the shareholder and corporate governance rules applicable to Edinfor. Morais Leitão does not just advise EDP, of course. Among the year’s other highlights, Millennium BCP hired the firm when it sold its insurance companies to Caixa Geral de Dépositios and Group Fortis for €843 million, and Portucel also sought counsel from Morais Leitão in connection with the reprivatization of an indivisible block of shares representing 30% of the firm’s share capital, in a transaction valued at €334 million. The firm has continuously advised Portucel on its reprivatisation since its launch in 1995.

The 2004 merger that created Morais Leitão has been a great success, the new firm sitting comfortably in the top tier for each of the categories in Portugal. The firm won the award for Portuguese law firm of the year at IFLR’s annual awards earlier this year. Most interviewees considered it the strongest firm for banking, remarking that Morais Leitão “has a great mix after the merger” and “has gained a lot of strength and is now a good team.” Many banking and financial institutions agree, judging by the firm’s client roster. Banco Santander, Millennium BCP, Bank of New York, BNP Paribas, Portugal Telecom, Morgan Stanley, ABN Amro and UBS all seek advice from Morais Leitão. The firm recently acted on two of Portugal’s biggest banking transactions. In the first of these, the firm represented Banco Espírito Santo, the mandated lead arranger for a syndicated loan of €2.6 billion ($3.2 billion) to refinance the payment of Angola’s debts. This was one of the biggest syndicated loans executed in the international markets in 2004. The second big transaction involving Morais Leitão was the negotiation of two credit facilities, for a total of €2.65 billion, on behalf of Energias de Portugal (EDP). In two other smaller (but still considerable) banking transactions, Morais Leitão advised Eurohypo Portugal on the sale of a portfolio of Portuguese market credits for €467 million, and represented a syndicate of banks (ABN Amro, BNP Paribas and Société Générale) in relation to the €450 million refinancing of Optimus, Portugal’s third-largest mobile phone operator. The largest of the firm’s recent capital markets deals was the privatization of 11% of the share capital of EDP through a rights issue – the largest ever made in Portugal – to raise €1.2 billion. Morais Leitão advised EDP and the Portuguese government on the issue. The firm also acted in another groundbreaking deal when it represented Portugal Telecom on the structuring of the first share buyback programme concerning Euronext Lisbon listed companies. The programme saw Portugal Telecom purchase 7% of the share capital of the company (around 88,000 shares with a value of €790 million) and then cancel those shares. Portuguese bank Millennium BCP also sought the advice of Morais Leitão concerning an issuance of €500 million of perpetual non-cumulative guaranteed non-voting step-up preference shares. João Soares da Silva, who led the team in this and the Portugal Telecom deal, is recognized as one of the country’s top capital markets specialists. Nuno Galvão Teles is another leading name in this field.