ALMA SOCIETA' TRA AVVOCATI S.R.L.

Luca Benvenuto

Luca Benvenuto is Partner at Alma and coordinates the Banking & Financial Regulation Team at Rome office. Luca assists on a wide range of activities related to banking law, investment services and financial activities, with specific focus on payment services and e-money issues in relation to the identification and fulfillment of regulatory aspects (including banking transparency and anti-money laundering), and on the authorization procedures before the supervisory authorities. Luca has a significant experience in the structuring, realization and negotiation of: insure-tech projects; outsourcing agreements in compliance with EBA regulation; joint-venture and partnership agreements between both financial intermediaries and among financial intermediaries and fintech companies; SPA agreements for the acquisition of qualified and not-qualified stake in fintech companies. Luca has a deep knowledge in the sale and purchase of portfolios and complex transactions involving banking and financial entities.

Celeste Cenedesi

Celeste Cenedesi is senior associate in the Investment Funds team in Milan. Celeste assists domestic and international clients in the structuring and establishment of alternative investment funds for a wide range of asset classes, i.e. private equity, private debt, venture capital and real estate, as well as providing assistance in investment transactions in newly established alternative investment schemes, secondary market transactions and co-investments. Celeste assists managers in the establishment and regulatory approval of asset management companies and SICAFs, as well as in all legal and regulatory aspects related to the day-to-day management of alternative investment funds, and in the negotiation of agreements for the distribution of carried interest among managers.

Alessandro Corno

Alessandro Corno is equity and managing partner of Alma, and Head of the Investment Funds department.

Francesco Di Bari

Francesco Di Bari is Partner of Alma and has over 20 years of significant experience in the tax structuring of investments, co-investments and divestments both in the Italian market and in international transactions. Francesco has also gained extensive knowledge in tax planning, negotiation and implementation of complex transactions for domestic and international groups, including banks, investment funds and asset managers. Specialised in debt capital market transactions, securitisations and structured finance, financing transactions of any kind, such as real estate financing, acquisition finance, project finance and multi-jurisdictional syndicated loans, he has assisted numerous clients in major real estate and private equity transactions. Francesco has also provided legal assistance to prominent industrial and financial groups in tax litigation cases and in administrative relations with the Italian tax authorities (including tax inspections, agreements upon assessment and ruling requests). He was admitted to the Italian Bar in 2007 and to the Supreme Court in 2020.

Luca Magrini

Luca Magrini is Partner at Alma within the Corporate M&A team in Milan. Luca assists Italian and foreign clients, both business and financial players including private equity funds, in M&A and private equity transactions, in the structuring of joint ventures, in the drafting and negotiations of commercial agreements and the in set-up of corporate governance structures as well as in the corporate finance transactions. Luca has also gathered a significant experience in providing legal assistance with regards to financial crisis, in debt restructuring and in special situations. In this context, Luca assists Italian and foreign special opportunities fund, turnaround fund and credit fund also in relation to debt trading and distressed M&A transactions.

Paolo Marra

Paolo Marra is a Partner at Alma, Head of the Real Estate team and member of the Corporate team. Paolo specializes in Real Estate, M&A, and other extraordinary finance transactions, corporate law. He advises leading Italian and foreign investment companies, family offices, industrial companies, and multinational corporations. Paolo worked for several years as assistant professor in the Public Law Department of the Faculty of Law at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano. Before joining Alma, Paolo worked at Bonelli Erede and other leading Italian law firms. In 2009, he also worked as a foreign associate for the Dutch law firm DeBrauw Blackstone Westbroek. He has been a member of the Milan Bar Association since 2003.

Pasquale Mosella

Pasquale Mosella is partner of Alma and coordinates the Banking & Finance team in Milan. Pasquale is a finance lawyer, primarily focused on innovative structures requiring a combination of competences on lending, structured finance, NPLs/UTPs and restructuring /turnaround. He has also a consolidated track record in real estate finance, constantly assisting banks, financial institutions, investment funds and other major players in Italian and cross-border transactions.

Marco Nicolini

Marco Nicolini is Equity Partner at Alma and Head of the Corporate M&A team. Marco provides legal assistance in corporate and M&A transactions and he is an international advisor to leading multinational companies. He has more than 30 years of experience in providing out-of-court assistance to institutional investors and companies, with particular reference to real estate and infrastructure development transactions and related financing. Thanks to his experience in corporate matters, he has been involved in numerous M&A projects concerning acquisitions and divestments of Italian companies by Italian and foreign investors. In this context, his activities include setting up joint ventures, drafting shareholders’ agreements, corporate reorganisation, project finance, leasing agreements, banking and financial advisory and capital markets transactions. Marco has also been involved in numerous transactions in the Energy & Infrastructure sector, in particular in various acquisitions of assets or companies, including both renewable and non-renewable energy plants. Marco has assisted Italian and foreign companies in listing on regulated markets, in the initial public offering of shares, and in the placement of securities and bonds, dealing with legal aspects; he has also handled relations with the relevant supervisory authorities, in particular Consob and Borsa Italiana. He provided legal assistance to the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) in the activities related to the recapitalisation and capital strengthening of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena as well as the sale of the shareholding held by the MEF in the same.

Rocco Pugliese

Rocco Pugliese is Partner at Alma and coordinates the Banking & Finance team in Milan. Rocco regularly advises banks, asset companies and Italian and foreign investors in structuring and negotiating national and cross-border transactions in the areas of acquisition finance, real estate finance, project finance and corporate finance as well as debt restructuring, turnaround and purchase of receivables.

Alessandra Quattrini

Alessandra Quattrini is Partner at Alma and Head of the Administrative and Public Law Department based in Rome. Alessandra is an expert in public law and has thirty years of experience in providing legal assistance in this field, both in and out of court. In particular, she assists clients in the areas of public contracts (works, supplies and services) and public tenders, project finance, public utilities, infrastructure and transport; construction and urban planning and urban regeneration plans; public health; expropriations; landscape constraints; cultural heritage. She assists regional local authorities and public companies, with particular specialisation in the “in-house providing” sector and environmental law. She also supports clients in assessing the public profiles in procedures for merger and acquisition of companies. She is the author of publications on public and administrative law. She is a lecturer at the University “LUMSA” (Libera Università Maria Assunta) in Rome and at EUR (European University of Rome) for Second-level Masters in Public Contracts and Administrative Law, and she is a speaker at numerous conferences and conventions. She holds a three-year assignment (2022 – 2025) as legal expert at the Italian General Inspectorate for Accounting and Finance concerning the monitoring and analysis of public-private partnership (PPP) operations, also financed with PNRR funds. She was invited as an expert during the hearings at the Italian Senate of the Republic for the reform of the Public Contracts Code.

Sergio Visalli

Sergio Visalli is Senior Associate at Alma within the Banking & Financial Regulation Department based in Rome. Sergio is specialized in the regulation of banking, insurance, financial and investment services. He regularly advises Italian and foreign clients in the areas of governance, compliance (including transparency, anti-money laundering and privacy), conduct of business and prudential rules, product regulation, as well as in the context of extraordinary transactions with relevant regulatory profiles and supervisory and sanctioning proceedings in the various areas of finance. Sergio is also an expert on cryptocurrency regulation; NFTs and decentralised finance. He has gained experience in assisting both national and international industrial groups and financial institutions by providing support in relation to both ordinary business (including cross-border) and financing transactions (corporate, leveraged and acquisition finance) as well as M&A transactions.

Marco Zechini

Marco Zechini is equity partner of Alma and Head of the Banking and Financial Regulation team. Marco is specialized in regulation of financial intermediaries and technology law, with twenty years of experience in all regulatory and organizational aspects related to banking and financial services. He is also a recognized expert in the Fintech sector. With a solid corporate background, Marco handles sophisticated corporate transactions providing assistance in all legal, regulatory and organizational aspects related to payment and investment services, with particular focus on the Consolidated Law on Finance and in the field of investment and structuring of public offers for sale and subscription. Marco regularly assists, inter alia, banks, financial companies, payment institutions, e-money institution, investment and asset management companies, etc in the authorization procedures (before Bank of Italy and Consob) and in the management of relations with the supervisory authorities. He advises on the structuring, realization and negotiation of insure-tech projects, outsourcing agreements in compliance with EBA regulation, joint-venture and partnership agreements between financial intermediaries, and with fintech companies; in the sale and purchase of portfolios and complex transactions pertaining to banking and financial entities; in drafting and negotiation of SPA agreements for the acquisition of qualified and not-qualified stake in fintech companies. He also advises on the structuring of new services and products and provides legal and regulatory assistance, both on the arranger and originator side, as part of securitization transactions, providing support on administrative sanctions proceedings, ad interim measures and sanctions related to the provisions of banking, financial, investment and insurance services. He also has extensive experience in the context of outsourcing contracts of operational functions such as the outsourcing of IT processes.