Linklaters

Linklaters is one of the most solid, reputed and prestigious law firms in Spain. The corporate/M&A, banking & finance and capital markets departments make up the firm’s core practice areas, and these are in turn complemented by market-leading specialist teams in real estate, competition/antitrust, tax, employment, TMT and litigation & arbitration. Our Madrid office boasts a prestigious team of Spanish, English and American lawyers who provide fully integrated legal advice to our clients in both the domestic and international aspects of the transactions in which we participate.

The firm has been involved in the highest profile and most complex corporate and financial transactions that have taken place in Spain in recent years, advising the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions and investment banks on a number of domestic and cross-border deals. The corporate/M&A team advises on a broad range of transactions, including all kinds of M&A work, restructurings, joint ventures and private equity transactions, and has been involved in the vast majority of the tender offers launched and in all the P2Ps that have taken place in the Spanish market. Our banking & finance practice is diverse and fully integrated and our clients rely on our expertise in restructuring and insolvency matters, all kinds of leveraged transactions and corporate financings. Likewise, our capital markets team advises clients on regulatory issues, as well as on both the domestic and international aspects of a variety of equity and debt capital markets transactions, including among others, initial public offerings, block trades, rights issues and derivatives.

In addition, working closely with our colleagues from Linklaters' Lisbon office, the firm provides an integrated Iberian practice. Likewise, the Iberian team very often works with our São Paulo and New York offices on international transactions involving companies, financial institutions and banks in Brazil, areas of Africa with a Portuguese influence and the United States.

Recent transactions include advising

• Nomura, as financial advisor to the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB), Spanish Deposits Guarantee Fund (FGD) and Bank of Spain, on the design and implementation of the restructuring of UNNIM Banc, including its auction and subsequent sale to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), accompanied by an asset protection scheme
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as financial advisor to the FROB, FGD and Bank of Spain, on the restructuring of Banco CAM (entity resulting from the segregation of the banking business of Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo), including its auction and subsequent sale to Banco de Sabadell, accompanied by an asset protection scheme
• in the context of the restructuring of the Spanish savings banks,  the underwriters on both the €3.1bn IPO by Bankia and the €600m IPO by Banca Cívica
• International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) on the around €4bn takeover bid for the acquisition of a stake of around 53% in Spanish oil corporate Cepsa
• advising the dealers, on the annual update of both the €75bn Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) programme and the €10bn Euro-Commercial Paper (ECP) programme of Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), both being guaranteed by the Kingdom of Spain, as well as advising the respective managers on a number of drawdowns under the referred GMTN programme
• Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and UBS, as bookrunners, on the around €1.3bn sale by Repsol YPF of shares representing 5% of its own share capital
• Grupo Prisa on the refinancing of its corporate indebtedness
• Permira on the around €300m acquisition of online travel agency eDreams, then Permira and Axa Private Equity initially on the around €400m acquisition of online travel agency Opodo and subsequently on the integration of eDreams, Opodo and GoVoyages
  
• the joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, on the approx. €5.059bn rights issue of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA)
• the mandated lead arrangers on the around €1.5bn financing granted for the acquisition of a 25.83% stake in Abertis Infraestructuras by CVC Capital Partners from ACS
• Abengoa on its initial tapping of international capital markets for an aggregate amount of €1.55bn, including two €300m and 500m high-yield notes issues, two €200m and 250m convertible notes issues and a €300m notes issue
• in the context of recent leading sale and lease-back transactions, the mandated lead arrangers in relation to the financing granted to a RREEF-led consortium and to Moorpark Capital Partners for the acquisition, respectively, of a portfolio of real estate assets from BBVA and Banco Sabadell.

Linklaters operates in Spain through Linklaters S.L.P., an affiliate of Linklaters LLP.