About

A professional that has received industry-wide praise as one of the most notable corporate counsel in Italy, Silvio Cavallo joined financial services company Pillarstone in 2016. As general counsel for the Italian operations, he assists the business in its aim of providing long-term capital and operational expertise to European banks to create value, by managing their exposure to non-core and underperforming assets on their balance sheets. Cavallo has been crucial to the growth of Pillarstone in the country, managing a portfolio of eight assets in Italy across a broad variety of industries in the shipping, leisure, chemical and telecommunication industries, with a combined value in the region of €2bn. Prior to his arrival, Pillarstone did not have a legal department and relied exclusively on external counsel for legal work, it was here where he saw the opportunity to construct the department from scratch during a period of profound transformation and growth for the company which has more than trebled its assets in the past few years. ‘This has been a significant challenge and provided a terrific learning opportunity and incredibly steep learning curve’ says Cavallo. ‘Rather than the mere legal perspective and a number of situations where I had real skin-in-the-game, in a manner which is not common to external counsel. I also think that all the foregoing, together with my exposure to a team of individuals with a very diverse background (including private equity, banking, and management consulting) eventually transformed my way of thinking and gave me a fresh and broader, perspective on problems and how best to approach them’. Thanks to him, the functionality and centrality within the business of the legal department has significantly evolved in a succession of different phases in the 20 months since its establishment. In the capacity of general counsel, he has been involved in some of the most sophisticated and innovative transactions concluded on the Italian market in the past years. In April 2017 he was instrumental to the deal which saw Pillarstone successfully complete a complex restructuring transaction involving Italian shipping company Premuda, which included a recapitalisation through a debt-to-equity swap which also included a first of its kind public to private transaction, as a result of which an ad hoc acquisition became the sole shareholder of Premuda. Amongst his most standout work as of recent times, Cavallo assisted Pillarstone in its participation in a project regarding a granular real estate receivable portfolio with a gross book value amounting to approximately €1.2bn launched by Intesa Sanpaolo, and is intended to be implemented through the identification of an investor. This experience saw Cavallo showcase his financial and industrial expertise and operational capabilities. Prior to joining Pillarstone, Cavallo practiced for two years at global law firm Paul Hastings, where he advised Italian and international private equity and hedge funds in the acquisition, maintenance and disposition of portfolio investments.