PLMJ is the only Portuguese law firm to appear in the Iberian ranking of top M&A advisers by leading research company Mergermarket

PLMJ is the only Portuguese law firm to appear in the Iberian ranking of the top advisers on M&A deals in 2015, prepared by leading research company Mergermarket.

Competing with the largest global and Spanish law firms in the Iberian market for legal assistance in sale and purchase and asset deals in 2015, PLMJ’s M&A team is featured for its work on 15 high value and technically complex M&A deals, with a total value of US$m 1,995.

For Maria João Mata, a partner from PLMJ’s corporate/M&A practice, “2015 was an excellent year in terms of M&A deals and these results reflect the fact that the Portuguese market is growing and attracting the interest of international players. This opens up the way for a greater number of deals in the coming years.”

The deals highlighted by Mergermaket include a series of investments by Oxy Capital, HIG Capital and FCC, as well as the acquisition of EFACEC Power Solutions by Isabel dos Santos’s group, the sale of Phone House Portugal, the sale of Mercado da Ribeira by Timeout and the sale of Tripadvisor, among others.

According to Duarte Schmidt Lino, a partner in PLMJ’s private equity/M&A team, “These results mean that PLMJ, with its private equity/M&A team, is recognised as one of the most experienced in this area, and the results help us to continue to our intense and sustained growth, thanks to the trust placed in us by our clients.”

2015 was a year that brought a great deal of work to the various PLMJ teams and partners that work on M&A and private equity deals, whether cross-border or Portuguese projects. The teams are made up of more than 30 lawyers headed by partners Luís Sáragga Leal, Sofia Gomes da Costa, Manuel Santos Vitor, Duarte Schmidt Lino, Tomás Pessanha, Vasco Ataíde Marques, Maria João Mata, Miguel Urbano and Barbara Godinho Correia, who provided legal advice on the most important merger and privatisation deals taking place in Portugal. Besides those listed above, PLMJ’s lawyers also advised on the sale of Vale do Lobo, and on major deals involving Toyota, Fujifilm, Ecco, among others.

PLMJ is the only Portuguese law firm to appear in the ranking of the top 15 Iberian legal advisers. In 14^th place, it has risen five places compared with 2014, having achieved this high position on the basis of the total number of deals it advised on during 2015.

Mergermarket is an international research agency that researches and analyses information on the main players and advisers in large-scale M&A operations.

See the rankings here: http://www.mergermarket.com/pdf/MergermarketTrendReport.2015.LegalAdvisorLeagueTables.pdf