About

The Banco Finantia in-house legal department supports all of the Bank’s activities and services including business and non-business areas, and is responsible for managing all legal related matters including contract drafting and negotiation, advising on legal frameworks and structuring of new products and services, as well as advising on regulatory and corporate governance matters. ‘Although our practice is quite diversified and comprehensive, it is the department’s policy to execute the substantial part of the work in-house and only outsource on a need to be basis. However, in recent years we have had growing support from outside counsel mostly regarding transactions requiring specific expertise of foreign jurisdictions’, says head of legal department André Rocha. Banco Finantia has a well-established reputation in the corporate and investment banking area and it is here where the legal team is required to give input on a daily basis, actively assisting the Bank’s corporate teams to get major deals accomplished. Some of these transactions include the collaboration in respect of public tender offers, raising of financing under several forms and M&A transactions comprising a wide range of sectors both public and private. Amongst these transactions saw the team oversee the legal aspect of the acquisition of Tertir, the port concessions leader in Portugal by Yildirim in 2017. Most recently it assisted Mota Engil, SGPS’s public subscription offer and public exchange offers in 2018. Banco Finantia is also an active participant in the debt capital markets transactions and as such the legal team handle all kinds of legal issues namely related to debt instruments and their placement, as well as to national and international syndication of loans, both in primary and secondary markets as well as OTC derivatives. ‘Our culture reflects the very close work dynamics that exists amongst the team members which translates into an informal work methodology aimed at incentivising discussion and interaction rather than a top down approach’, says Rocha.