About

With revenues of over €15bn, EDP is one of the largest providers of electricity in Europe and one of the most substantial businesses in Portugal. The EDP legal team was nominated by a number of private practice partners and in-house peers who were impressed by the support it provides to the company’s broad and complex activities. Led by Teresa Pereira, the legal team has been a lynchpin during a time of major corporate activity for the utility company. Working within a utility company can be challenging for any team, but EDP has an extra layer of regulation to contend with in the Iberian market. Operating Long Term Contracted Generation in Spain and Portugal means that the legal team has to safeguard special regime generation and offer contractual stability compensation as well as act as a “last resort supplier”. At the same time, the team is faced with the supporting EDP’s unregulated supply of electricity and gas, as well as the company’s operations in Brazil. In March 2017 it was announced that EDP had made an offer to buy the remaining shares of its renewables subsidiary EDP Renováveis (EDPR), furthering the company’s strategy to reinforce its position in the renewables and wind power markets. On the same day, EDP stated that it had agreed to sell Naturgas Energía Distribución, its Spanish gas distribution network, for approximately €2.6bn. The buyer, Nature Investments, is a special purpose vehicle operated by a consortium of institutional investors. Pereira and the team played an important role in these commercial negotiations and will continue to shape the ongoing transactions.