Energy and natural resources
Leading Mello Torres' corporate department in Rio de Janeiro, Clovis Torres brings extensive transactional expertise to high-value financing and M&A deals. His practice centres on the mining sector, where he leverages prior in-house counsel experience at a prominent industry player. Torres also acts for major financial institutions in a variety of financing structures, with notable strength in project finance transactions.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Rio de Janeiro Elite
Profile
Work Department
Project finance, M&A, corporate law, foreign trade and financial transactions in foreign trade.
Position
Partner
Career
Clovis Torres was chief compliance officer and general counsel at Vale between 2001 and January 2018. He was responsible for the company’s legal and tax affairs, human resources, sustainability, energy, governance, integrity, M&A and participations areas. During his first term with Vale, from 2003 to 2007, Clovis was the director of the corporate legal department.
In 2007, Clovis took up the position of executive vice president at Bahia Mineração where he coordinated the implementation of the Pedra de Ferro Project, a mining complex designed to produce 25 million tons of iron ore. Clovis was a partner at Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados between 2000 and 2003. He also worked at IFC – International Finance Corporation in Washington, DC, and at Cargill. In 2015, Clovis was the chairman of the board of directors at Petrobras Distribuidora S.A. and an alternate member of the board of directors at Petrobras S.A.
Languages
English and Portuguese
Memberships
- President of Instituto Brasileiro de Mineração (Brazilian Mining Institute), 2014 to 2017
- Member of the Corporate Law Committee of the Brazilian Federal Bar Association
- President of Sindicato Nacional da Indústria de Extração do Ferro e de Metais Básicos – Sinferbase (National Association of Iron and Base Metals Extraction Industry)
- Member of the Board of Trustees of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV)
- Member of the Economic Affairs Council of Confederação Nacional da Indústria – CNI (National Confederation of Industry)
Education
Catholic University of Salvador Law School (UCSal, LL.B.)) and master of laws in international
law, trade and finances at Tulane University Law School, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Content supplied by Mello Torres
Key clients
- MMIC - Mineração Maracá Indústria e Comercio S.A. / Lundin Mining PowerCo (Volkswagen battery unit)
Work highlights
Advised, together with Herbert Smith Freehills, PowerCo (Volkswagen's batteries unit), on the review of the audit of Brazilian assets in the context of the financial support necessary for the acquisition of Minas Santa Rita (nickel), located in Bahia, and Serrote (copper), located in Alagoas.