About

The in-house legal department of Celeo, an Elecnor Group company, is comprised of four lawyers who manage and coordinate the work related to the company’s Spanish activities, including a total number of 50 subsidiaries and over €4.1m assets under management, from the department’s head office in Madrid. They also handle relevant investments in different jurisdictions, mainly Brazil and Chile, in conjunction with their wider team of seven lawyers and one trainee based in those countries. Having joined Elecnor in 1998, Alberto Ferrández has led Celeo’s legal team since 2009. Marta Blanco joined Celeo’s Madrid head office in 2011, providing general advice on local Spanish investments, mainly related to regulatory matters, litigation, M&A and contract law, and assisting with all legal issues arising from Chile and other potential jurisdictions. Miguel Ángel Fernández and Beatriz del Barrio recently joined Celeo’s Madrid head office in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Fernández provides legal advice on Spanish activities, including corporate, contractual, regulatory and M&A matters, and assists with all legal issues related to Elecnor’s Brazilian subsidiaries. Del Barrio has recently accomplished her legal studies and provides assistance to Madrid’s local team in every legal area required. The head legal office in Madrid is constantly working side by side with their colleagues in both Chile and Brazil, directly handling any local or cross-border issues with their relevant heads (Cristián de la Cruz and Alan Heinen respectively) and the remaining lawyers. During the last two years, the company’s business has kept expanding and assets under management has almost doubled. Celeo has focused not only on new energy projects, such as transmission lines and renewable generation in Latin America and Spain, but also on structured finance, prioritising long-term partnerships with international investors in order to be more competitive. Recently Celeo has developed an expansion plan in the Latin American market, as exemplified by the acquisition of part of the energy transmission business of Grupo Isolux Corsán (GIC) in Brazil and the issuance of bonds for the financing of new projects in Chile. In 2018, Celeo acquired two concessionary subsidiaries owned by Isolux Energía e Participações, a Brazilian subsidiary of GIC, for an amount of approximately €46m. Due to the insolvency proceedings of GIC in Spain and Brazil, and the multijurisdictional approach of the transaction, the legal team provided highly experienced and cross-border advice, contributing to the project’s eventual success. Talking about the team’s culture, Ferrández comments that the ‘company’s business has grown in different countries, and we have to deal with more high demanding foreign investors, such us private funds, to finance our projects. All these new scenarios make us continuously innovate and learn’. He also highlights the team’s efforts in developing a strong compliance system in the last two years: ‘Celeo is working together with its local teams abroad to comply with both the company’s ethical commitments and all legal requirements that affect us in several jurisdictions. Bribery and regulations are especially sensitive in our sector, which is why we are extremely concerned with strengthening our work with experienced auditors and recognised professionals to certify and steadily improve our compliance system’.