About

The Navigator Company, previously known as Portucel Soporcel, is Europe’s largest producer of uncoated, wood-free paper, an enterprise that nets it roughly €1.5bn a year in revenue. Traded on the Euronext Lisbon stock exchange, The Navigator Company occupies an important place in the Portuguese business landscape as one of their most powerful and well-recognised companies. The company’s legal team, led by long-standing legal director and company secretary António Neto Alves, is similarly well respected and was nominated by a number of in-house contemporaries. An often-noted characteristic of The Navigator Company’s legal team is that it is willing to alter external advisers regularly, and is always looking to secure the best representation and support possible. This is in contrast to many in-house teams who rely on established relationships with law firms and are not necessarily getting the consistently best deal, and is evidence of the Navigator team’s willingness to go the extra mile to secure the most efficient service for the company as possible. The team is highly active in supporting the company’s M&A activity – these are often large and complex projects that require a large amount of due diligence and coordination between business units, the in-house legal team and external counsel. The legal department’s effective synchronisation of all these elements in order to close deals and support the company has been a hallmark of its work over many years.