Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

Definitely. As institutional investors, we aim to find special opportunities and create value in investments in the medium to long term. Challenging environments are something we look for because we understand that this is where many of these opportunities arise. The pandemic demanded that the legal team be even closer to the organisation’s leaders, to allow the analysis of scenarios, changes and opportunities and the corresponding decision-making and fast and firm approaches. This involved issues such as health, well-being and safety, flexibility to accommodate sanitary and movement limitations, the adoption of policies and regulations before government action, financial security and analysis of investment opportunities, many of which were completed precisely during the pandemic.

To this end, the leadership of the legal department has been part of the company’s leadership team, as members of the legal team have been part of several ad hoc crisis and management committees, have sought to keep up to date on discussions, normative and regulatory changes, trends and share these issues with other members of the organisation. The legal team has been both the custodian of risk, but has also had to use creative approaches to address and accommodate emerging issues with the company’s personnel, facilities, structures, operations, commercial, institutional and financial relationships.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

It is essential for us at Mubadala Capital to work together with external advisors that are in line with our values, purposes, mandates and performance profile. Operating in challenging markets such as Brazil, focusing on special opportunities and complex assets, requires creative approaches, search for innovative structures and solutions, proactivity and courage. The ability to put yourself in the customer’s shoes, understand their needs, think about risk-return, have long-term visions, an investor’s mentality, involves a series of skills not necessarily taught in schools or practiced in law firms. All these are differentials and something that we are looking for in a very select group of professionals, locally and globally, which has made us reconsider our external advisors repeatedly.