About

Having almost 150 years of history, Bergé y Compañía is a leader in the automotive and logistics service sectors. With a team of more than 4,500 people and present in 10 countries, the group has two main sub holdings: Bergé, whose main activities are intermodal logistic services; and Bergé Auto, dedicated to the distribution of automobiles and the development of mobility projects within the new digital economy. The most senior lawyer in the legal and tax department is Salvador Bautista, serving as general counsel and secretary to the board. Apart from Bautista, the team includes 12 lawyers and one support staff. The department is structured into two main areas. Firstly tax, which is headed by Alfonso López, responsible for all national and international tax matters of the group. And the legal area, which is further divided into two functional areas, corresponding to each of the main business units: automotive, which is headed by Llanos Manzanares; and logistics and infrastructure, whose head is Alberto Menéndez. The three experienced lawyers perfectly represent the values of the legal department. According to Bautista, the culture of the legal team is based on six pillars: trustworthiness, teamwork, technical excellence, commitment to the client, commercial approach and hard work. ‘Some of these values are shared by our company, so we feel very much aligned with the corporate culture. The first step in developing these principles is to look for those values when hiring new members of the team. In addition, I try to lead by example, to follow those values in my day-to-day performance as a lawyer no matter how difficult it seems to be sometimes, and I believe the other three heads of the team perfectly embody them too’, says Bautista. Some of these values can also be measured, for six years the legal department has been carrying out a satisfaction survey within the top 80 most senior executive clients, in which the team has obtained very successful results. During the past two years, the team has experienced some important changes. It has strengthened bonds with foreign firms, not only in existing markets such as Latin America, but also in new markets such as Finland and Switzerland. In line with business growth, the team has increased the headcount of the department by two people and has plans for further growth. Also, in accordance with the mobility venture and lab project developed by the Automotive business unit (“B4Motion”), the team is becoming more specialised in the legal aspects of new digital business. The legal and tax team has achieved some important successes during 2018 and 2019. Bautista particularly highlights three transactions, including the acquisition of the KIA and Mitsubishi distribution businesses in Finland by the company’s automotive division at the beginning of 2018; the recent acquisition of the Hyundai distribution business in Switzerland, also by the automotive division; and within the logistics and infrastructure division, the successful merger between Bergé Automotive logistics and GEFCO Spain, in January 2019, a challenging deal from a technical point of view which gave rise to BERGÉ GEFCO, a market leader in the Spanish finished-vehicle logistics market.