Team size: 8 

Bio

Ana Suárez Garnelo is an experienced legal professional with a strong background in real estate asset and credit management services. She currently serves as General Counsel of Intrum Spain and Secretary of the Board of Directors at Solvia, a real estate management firm within the Intrum Group. 

Ana has developed expertise in corporate M&A transactions, portfolio acquisitions, negotiation of Real Estate and Non-Performing Loan (NPL) servicing contracts, as well as arbitration and litigation proceedings. She has a solid understanding of real estate law, corporate governance, and financial regulation, which she applies to guide companies through complex legal matters. 

She began her career at Landwell (now PwC), where she spent nearly nine years advising multinational companies in the Corporate and M&A division, focusing on the pharmaceutical sector. This experience provided her with valuable knowledge in corporate law and large-scale transactions, laying the foundation for her future work in mergers, acquisitions, and business restructuring. 

In 2014, Ana took on the role of General Counsel and Head of Legal at Haya Real Estate. Over the following decade, she played a key role in the company’s growth, including managing significant transactions such as the issuance of a €475 million high-yield bond in 2017 and a €50 million debt repurchase. Ana also played a key role in the successful sale of Haya Real Estate to Intrum. 

While at Haya Real Estate, she joined Housell as Secretary of the Board of Directors, where she gained experience in the legal management of technology-driven real estate businesses. Her role at Housell involved supporting key corporate decisions and contributing to the company’s legal and governance framework. 

Following Haya Real Estate’s integration into Intrum Spain in 2024, Ana was appointed General Counsel for the combined company, where she leads one of Spain’s top legal teams in real estate and credit management services. 

Ana holds a Law degree and an LL.M in Corporate Law and has completed advanced studies in Real Estate Owned (REO) and Non-Performing Loan (NPL) portfolio management. This combination of education and practical experience has shaped her approach to legal challenges in the real estate and credit management sectors. 

Throughout her career, Ana has been recognised for her leadership and ability to navigate complex legal issues. Under her direction, her team has received industry recognition for their work in real estate and credit management. With a solid understanding of financial regulations and corporate law, Ana continues to contribute to the legal and financial sectors. 

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience? 

Periods of instability and crises make the role of the legal department even more important than the day-to-day advice. At Intrum Group’s Legal Department, we are a true business partner of the commercial and corporate support areas, and we get involved in projects to provide legal certainty and decision-making processes based on a prior analysis of the risks and opportunities that each situation provides. 

<strong>What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently? </strong>   

Recent transactions include the purchase of a minority stake in Aktua Soluciones Financieras from Banco Santander and support in Intrum Group’s debt restructuring at both local and European levels. 

We have been heavily involved in the negotiation and implementation of servicing contracts for significant NPL portfolios acquired by Intrum Group from major financial institutions, investment funds, and other entities. Additionally, we facilitated the sale of a REO portfolio owned by the company, a leading investment fund, and a major Spanish financial institution. 

One of the largest transactions was the negotiation of servicing contracts with a major Spanish financial entity for the management of a real estate asset portfolio valued at approximately €4.2 billion, encompassing 44,000 assets under management. 

Other notable legal matters include leading the merger project of the three most significant companies in the Spanish Group, overseeing legal, finance, compliance, operational, and business teams to ensure compliance with the agreed timeline and structured step-plan. Furthermore, I have managed two arbitration proceedings before a major public entity in Spain, a co-investment of a portfolio of unsecured NPLs from a private equity fund with more than €2 billion in outstanding balance, and a servicing agreement for a securitisation structure of a leading Spanish financial institution. 

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?

At Intrum Spain, we have promoted the management of the company’s powers of attorney through a self-customised full digital IT tool that supports the agile and effective use of all operational and corporate powers of attorney of the company (we have at least 25,000 PoA registers within all the Group Companies). This IT solution not only lessens significantly the amount of time dedicated to manage administrative work within the team, but also, enables lawyers and other business areas to consult in real-time information about the powers, the delegations included in them and to be able to obtain a high level of reporting directly from the tool.