Banking and finance

Cescon Barrieu

Bringing together ‘professionals with technical knowledge and extensive experience in financial markets and banking law’, the banking and finance department at Cescon Barrieu handles an impressive volume of high-profile, and oftentimes innovative, financial transactions. The team handles a varied transactional workload, where structured finance, corporate lending, and acquisition finance feature alongside distressed debt and trade finance. On the regulatory front, the group is particularly skilled at assisting financial institutions, payment services and fintech clients on the negotiation of agreements with partners, authorisations with the Central Bank and banking regulations. Rio-based Maurício Teixeira dos Santos, whose notable areas of expertise include project and structured finance, debt restructuring, and financial services regulatory matters, jointly heads the group with Daniel Laudisio in São Paulo, who also handles capital markets and M&A mandates. Sitting in the Rio office, Amanda Arêas is especially active in acquisition finance, alternative lending and distressed assets, and has recently advised on a number of project finance deals in the infrastructure sector.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

'Professionals with technical knowledge and extensive experience in financial markets and banking law.'
'Amanda Arêas is very technical, dedicated, available and organised. Assertive and commercial communication.'
'Cescon is very responsive and on top of legal developments. Daniel Laudisio is recommended.'
'What makes the firm unique is the fact that it is concerned with understanding the client's business in a 360º way, being available to interface with different areas of the staff (not just the legal department), anticipating demands and proactively contributing to the construction of alternatives in order to better meet the client's needs.'
'The active listening, technical capacity and availability of the professionals distinguish the firm on the national legal scene.'
'In terms of innovation, the firm has tools that help clients with complex matters (such as obtaining various certificates from different bodies in an electronic, centralised and agile manner) and in terms of people, the firm ensures that clients are always served by a team that has knowledge of the business as a result of participating in previous transactions for the same client, anticipating demands and favouring the implementation of significant improvements with each new deal.'
'Maurício Teixeira dos Santos and Amanda Arêas are the partners who assist us in the area of banking and finance law. They work flexibly, incorporating themselves quickly into projects, whether in the interface with the client or with other advisers and counterparties, adapting quickly to proposed agendas and any project reformulations. In addition, they are constantly available for clarification, consultation and alignment, respond quickly to demands and frequently exceed expectations in the deliveries requested.'

Key clients

Banco Santander (Brasil)
Ant Group / Alibaba Group
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce - CIBC
Lumina Capital Management
Banco Bradesco S.A.
Atento Brasil S.A. / Atento Luxco
Federação Brasileira de Bancos – FEBRABAN
Natura & Co Pay
Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo S.A. – SABESP
BRK Ambiental
Goldman Sachs
Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. -ELETROBRAS
BRB – Banco de Brasília S.A.
BNP Paribas
Edenred Group
ING Bank
Grupo Localiza

Work highlights

Advised Santo Antônio Energia on the restructuring of its debt with the onlending Banks of BNDES funds, which involved the prepayment of approximately R$2bn and the debt assumption by its indirect controlling company, Eletrobras, of the outstanding amounts of direct and onlending debts of SAESA in the approximate amount of R$11.5bn.
Advised Sabesp on the structured financing in the amount of R$470m offered by Inter-American Development Bank - IDB, guaranteed by Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique S.A., a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), focused on private sector development, and structured financing in the amount of R$1bn offered by International Finance Corporation - IFC.