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

One of our most significant cases was the divestiture of Privalia Mexico and other Mexican subsidiaries during 2019, an intricate and highly technical operation involving a corporate sale and a sophisticated set of IT and digital marketing transitional service agreements to guarantee the flawless functioning of e-commerce sales.

Corporate divestiture of the entities was completed in December 2019 and the provision of the transitional service agreements was finalised in December 2021.

Another significant case of note was the IPO of the Brazilian entity (2021) – taking Privalia Brazil public. A complex exercise that, in addition to the work entailed by an IPO in a foreign stock exchange, required a sophisticated tax and legal analysis carried out both in Spain and Brazil, a reorganisation of the Spanish and Brazilian IP and corporate structure and multiple changes to the group’s intercompany set up.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by the Ukraine crisis, attendant supply chain costs rising and inflation. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen and, if so, what does this entail?

Veepee and Privalia’s business is aimed to ensure access to high-quality brands at a high discount, and the group’s capacity to ensure such discounts has been heavily impacted by the increase in both international logistics and our providers’ production costs; however, the group’s commitment to offering the best prices remains untouched. In order to maintain our exceptional commercial offer at the same value, our sourcing teams have needed to enter into challenging renegotiations, guaranteeing the supply of stock at excellent value.

Furthermore, the business development team has shifted its focus to support all these new initiatives and continues working on ensuring sustainability and profitability of the business model, not only under current distressing circumstances but also for the long term.

What are your organisations plans in the Latin America region over the next 12 months and how will your legal expertise help to achieve these plans?

Privalia Brazil will maintain the high-value commercial offer to its customers under the current challenging circumstances, which will require an optimisation of the business model and structural costs; and furthermore, it will also expand its offer by deploying new lines of business already existing in its European companies.

The legal department will be key in this initiative in 2 ways:

Providing advice on the strategy to be implemented in the future, not purely from a legal point of view but as a trusted general advisor; and providing the technical support necessary for the deployment of the strategy and the implementation of the new lines of business in the territory of Brazil.