Overview
As with other southern European economies, the financial crisis remains a severe reality for Portugal. However, it has witnessed several important developments recently and 2010 saw the country’s largest-ever corporate transaction when Telefónica acquired Portugal Telecom’s 50% stake in Brazilian mobile operator Vivo for €7.5bn. Furthermore, in December 2009, Brazilian cement company Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional launched a hostile €4.15bn takeover bid for Portuguese cement company Cimpor, which resulted in shareholders Camargo Corrêa and Votorantim increasing their stakes by acquiring shares from Lafarge and Cinveste. This kept many of Portugal’s most prominent firms surprisingly active with capital markets and corporate work.
The public sector boom has been quelled by the government’s decision to part or wholly postpone a number of public tenders and PPPs – including construction for the new Lisbon airport, part of the planned high-speed railway, and several motorway contracts – due to a crippling lack of available financing. Presidential elections in early 2011 are likely to impact significantly on the future of public tenders and project finance. Areas such as employment, litigation and tax have been very busy. A number of foreign companies are in the process of leaving Portugal in search of better credit incentives abroad, which in turn means that work has continued apace in Lusophone countries, particularly Brazil and Angola. Some firms are also seeking new horizons in Asia, with CCA Advogados opening an office in Shanghai, and PLMJ Law Firm creating a new partnership with Dacheng Law Office in Beijing.
The arrival of Spanish firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo in January 2010 brings added competition in the banking and corporate sectors. New firm Campos Ferreira, Sá Carneiro & Associados is also gaining high-profile mandates. Firms have come under pressure to reduce their fees in the prevailing financial climate, and Linklaters LLP let go of six associates in May 2010. Meanwhile, a team of four partners and six other lawyers left ABBC – Azevedo Neves, Benjamim Mendes, Carvalho & Associados – Sociedade de Advogados to join Pedro Pinto, Bessa Monteiro, Reis, Branco & Associados in 2010, a move which substantially raised the latter’s profile in IP and TMT.