This traditional Portuguese giant is an acknowledged leader for banking and finance work. The team comprises two partners, four senior associates and three associates providing sophisticated advice to a large and loyal list of clients. The group has seen a huge surge in restructuring, refinancing and company reorganisation work. It advised an international syndicate of banks including BCP, Santander Totta, Barclays, BNP Paribas and Caixa Geral de Depósitos on the corporate reorganisation of Brisa Group. Sources say: "It is the best firm in Portugal, with excellent technical quality, proactive lawyers and ample knowledge of every practice area."
This Portuguese giant's project finance practice is housed within the corporate department, alongside the banking and finance group. The majority of its clients are banks or financial institutions and, following the suspension of the majority of public projects in Portugal, it devotes nearly all of its time to the private sector. The team is particularly active in the renewable energy sector and on the restructuring of various infrastructure projects. A recent mandate saw it advise a major bank on the financing of a wind farm in Romania.
Sources say: “The team knows projects and covers every aspect, including project finance. It has built up strong relationships with a large number of clients.”
Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva & Associados is widely known, particularly for advice to lenders on financings. Practice head Luís Branco advised Caixa Geral de Depósitos and Caixa – Banco de Investimento (CaixaBI) on matters regarding the conversion of shadow toll motorways into real tolls. Filipe Lowndes Marques advised Selenis Canada on financing for a PET plastic factory in Quebec. Debt restructuring and corporate reorganisation mandates included advising a bank syndicate on Brisa’s €3bn reorganisation. Senior lawyer Pedro Gorjão Henriques is recommended.
"I've worked with Morais Leitão, my experience with them is very good," says one client. In addition, the firm's flagship project finance lawyer Luís Branco also impressed both his clients and rivals. "I've worked with Luís Branco, he's a very good one, and a very nice lawyer," says one client, while a peer says: "Luís Branco is a very good project finance lawyer and he's very good at project finance."
Though most of the PPP (public-private partnership) projects in Portugal have been suspended due to the economic downturn, Morais Leitão has fortunately managed to maintain a steady stream of mandates. One example saw Branco and Filipe Lowndes Marques lead the team advising on a €600 million PPP financing for a new hospital in the Lisbon area.
Branco was again involved as the team advised Águas de Cascais as concessionaire in the negotiation of the financing, under a project finance regime, of the water and waste concession of Cascais. The mandate was worth €63 million.
Renewable energy is still a key area of activity for most project finance teams with Morais Leitão no exception. February 2011 saw partner Lowndes Marques lead the team advising a syndicate of 11 commercial banks together with bondholders in relation to the repowering of a wind farm held by the Iberwind group, involving the substitution of 20 obsolete turbines with six new generation turbines. The €14 million mandate includes the amendment of the existing facilities, the release of security over the dismantled equipment, as well as the creation of additional security over the new wind turbines.
Another highlight in the renewable energy sector saw Marques lead the team advising Banco Comercial Português in relation to the financing of the construction, installation and operation of a windfarm located in Vila Real, composed of six wind turbines with a global capacity of 15MW. The project, worth €12 billion approximately, was developed by Alto do Marão - Energia Eólica Unipessoal who acted as borrower and was sponsored by Enerflame Investimentos.
Banking and Capital Markets
2012
Morais Leitão's capital markets practice is traditionally very strong and is unrivalled in terms of Portuguese domestics. This status is backed by a number of clients and peers. "Morais Leitão has a very strong capital markets practice," says one peer. "If I am to distinguish someone that would be higher than others, then I would say that should be Morais Leitão. " While a client says: "I've worked with Morais Leitão, they're good in their own way." However some mention that the departure of Maria Antonia Cardoso de Menezes in 2009 has affected the firm to some extent.
On the equity side, Carlos Osório de Castro, António Lobo Xavier, and Jorge Simões Cortez advised Vallis Capital Partners on the set up of private equity fund Vallis Sustainable Investments I. Another mandate saw Nuno Galvão Teles and Rui de Oliveira Neves advising a syndicate of banks, including Caixa BI and Morgan Stanley, on the preparation of Efacec Capital's IPO listing.
"De Castro is a notable lawyer in capital markets, he's the best capital markets lawyer in Portugal," says one peer. "He's very good and very aggressive; you will find him on all these capital markets transactions."
In the debt capital markets, one of the firm's key clients,EDP Energias de Portugal , called in a team led by partner Luísa Soares da Silva to advise on its issue of €750 million 5.875% notes, which is part of a €12.5 billion programme for the issuance of debt instruments.
Again Da Silva was involved when BCP called in the team to work on the update of its €15 billion commercial paper programme on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Elsewhere the firm also advised BCP on a €1 billion issue floating rate covered bonds under a €10 billion covered bonds programme.
On the securitisation market, Filipe Lowndes Marques again advised BCP on a €2.7 billion securitisation portfolio of receivables, arising mainly from small-and-medium-sized enterprise loans, which aims to assist banking activities of the originator. It was the first securitisation transaction involving only overdraft facilities in the Portuguese market.
Morais Leitão also has an extremely good banking reputation and the firm has caught clients' eyes due to its established banking practice. "We work with Morais Leitão mostly on corporate governance and basically this firm is the principle firm of the banks, with whom the banks are working with on corporate governance," says one lawyer. "We've worked with several lawyers from the firm, João Soares da Silva is possibly the best lawyer there and we're quite happy with their firm."
In banking, a team led by Luís Branco and Pedro Gorjão Henriques advised a syndicate of banks, including BCP, Banco Santander Totta, and Barclays alike, in relation to the corporate reorganisation of the Brisa Group. The transaction involved the transfer of the existing debt to the new concessionaire and the establishment of an MTN Programme for Brisa – Concessão Rodoviária.
In terms of banking work, Branco is seen by peers as the firm's key figure. "Luís Branco is a leading lawyer in banking and project finance," says one rival.
Another notable banking deal saw Branco involved again advising Caixa Geral de Depósitos and Caixa – Banco de Investimentos in regard to a €56 million investment in the infrastructure and equipment of Miff toll collection systems.