About

The in-house legal department of industrial conglomerate Altri is based in the head office of the company, where it assists Altri in managing its various operations including the 80 thousand hectares of forest it manages. Made up of two lawyers and two solicitors, the in-house legal department prides itself for being multidisciplinary, efficient, skilled and synchronised team that manages a wide variety of issues with high performance and deep legal knowledge and has over the years reinforced its communication channels with the different business units. The in-house legal department shares the group’s views, strategy, culture and operational goals and is very well regarded by its capacity to prevent, react and implement new and innovative legal solutions. The team is led by head of the legal and compliance department Raquel Rocha Carvalho, who is described by nominators as, ‘very practical and dynamic [and] able to coordinate the legal team in order to cover all these companies’ legal needs’. During the last two years the in-house legal and compliance departments of Altri consolidated their internal procedures and implemented a new software which allows a more efficient management of all real estate issues. The legal team has been involved in the acquisition of 50% of the share capital and voting rights that Energias de Portugal (EDP), held in EDP Produção – Bioeléctrica and performed all procedures necessary to conclude the acquisition. Most notably, it has been involved in the execution of the €125m investment contract signed between Altri Group and the Portuguese Government. The project’s goal is to improve energy and environmental efficiency and increase the production of Altri Group. It has also been instrumental in the issuing of the first green bond by private placement in Portugal, intended to finance the investments of Sociedade Bioelétrica do Mondego regarding the construction of a new biomass power plant located in Figueira da Foz. ‘The Altri Group requires its teams to have the highest levels of quality, performance and commitment – but the Altri Group also gives to its employees a real empowerment to lead, in the areas that concern each one, the ongoing operations. In this way, their people assume the company’s targets as their own. This is the key to the company’s success – their people’, says Carvalho.