Lisbon, April 28, 2020 - Morais Leitão, through its M&A team led by partner Tomás Vaz Pinto and including managing associate Diana Ribeiro Duarte, advised the winning consortium on the purchase from the José de Mello Group and the Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 1 LP of two shareholder blocks representing a total of 81.1% of Brisa's voting rights.
The M&A team of Morais Leitão also included the associate Lourenço Limão Oliveira, with the participation of partner Margarida Olazabal Cabral in public law and concessions and partner Filipe Lowndes Marques and managing associate Filipa Morais Alçada in financial law. The antitrust and competition team included partner Luís do Nascimento Ferreira, managing associate Pedro de Gouveia e Melo and associate Dzhamil Oda.
The consortium consists of three investors with accumulated experience in the management of infrastructure companies: APG (BPA's asset manager, the Dutch civil servants and education sector pension fund), NPS (National Pension Service of the Republic of Korea) and SLAM (Swiss Life Asset Manager).
For partner Tomás Vaz Pinto, who heads Morais Leitão's Corporate Department, this "was an operation carried out under very adverse conditions, in the context of the state of emergency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, assuming particular legal complexity due to its size, types of assets and ambitious timings".
The completion of the transaction is subject to the usual conditions precedent and should occur during the third quarter of this year.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP provided legal advice to the winning consortium in jurisdictions other than Portugal.
The José de Mello Group was assisted by Vieira de Almeida & Associados, Clifford Chance and Loyens & Loeff and Arcus by Campos Ferreira, Sá Carneiro & Associados.