What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Luz Saúde group is one of the largest healthcare groups in terms of income operating in the Portuguese market under the trademark Hospital da Luz. The group supported considerable organisational changes over the last years. In February 2014, the group holding company (former Espírito Santo Saúde, SGPS) successfully concluded an Initial Public Offering and its shares were admitted to negotiation in Euronext Lisbon. Later in 2014, the group was subject to a takeover bid, a complex and newsworthy process involving four different offers, being considered one of the most competitive bidding processes ever seen in the Portuguese market. In the said process, the group shares have been almost totally purchased by the insurance company Fidelidade, owned by the Chinese group Fosun. As a result of this acquisition, the group changed their name to Luz Saúde. Luz Saúde’s legal team has established great work methods for the effectiveness of the referred deals and contributed to the success of the processes and smooth and pacific integration into the Fosun Group, advising the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.

The Luz Saúde group is running 28 hospitals, clinics, and senior residences through more than 20 different companies. The legal team is highly involved in the acquisition and expansion processes and the company’s business activities. In the last years, the legal team was highly involved in the acquisition of facilities in Guimarães (north of Portugal), Funchal (Madeira Island), Coimbra (centre of Portugal) and Torres de Lisboa (Lisbon area). The team was also involved in the expansion of Hospital da Luz Lisboa and greenfield projects regarding the facilities in Vila Real and Santa Maria da Feira (both in the North of Portugal), Covilhã (centre of Portugal) and Odivelas (Lisbon area).

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

Technological innovation can benefit the legal and compliance teams regarding working practices. We can save time with routine activities that can be done with the help of technical solutions so that we can dedicate many more working hours to fundamental legal issues. A legal team would be much more efficient if members could devote time to good thinking, brainstorming, and discussing ideas.

In-house lawyers have direct contact with day-to-day business and can provide legal advice considering the company’s operations. Notwithstanding, sometimes, they have most of their time allocated to routine activities and cannot be involved in strategic issues or specific transactions. Having technological solutions to execute some of those routine activities will lead to free working hours to take care of more challenging work.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change within their organisations?

In-house lawyers are the ones who know better the day-to-day running of a company. On the other hand, they are also closer to operations and decision-making centres. This reality leads to in-house lawyers being able to acquire a greater awareness of their client’s risks and how best to mitigate them. In addition, in-house lawyers are the ones who are best placed to understand which issues need external support from the law firms.

What are some of the main legislative or regulatory changes that have impacted you?

Regarding the main challenges of last year, I would highlight the protection of personal data, which is particularly sensitive in our scope of work. Luz Saúde Group has given great importance to strict compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation in creating new products or services, such as the My Luz app.

Additionally, in 2022 and 2023, the team is structuring the group’s compliance programme, taking into account the recent relevant legislation, namely the General Regulation for the Prevention of Corruption, the General Regime for the Protection of Whistleblowers and the Framework to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

Interesting challenges have also arisen around ESG, and cooperation with Fosun in this matter is quite relevant. Luz Saúde has a sustainability office that works closely with the Legal and Compliance Department. In risk, I must highlight the work of the Risk Management Department, with whom we work closely with the Executive Committee.