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

• 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
• 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)
• Nomura International plc, Sucursal en España, as advisor to the Spanish Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB), FROB and Bank of Spain on the €2.692bn restructuring and sale of Spanish savings bank CajaSur.
• 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
• the financing institutions on the €1bn+ restructuring and refinancing process of the existing debt of SOS Corporación Alimentaria 
• Telvent on the issue of $200m senior subordinated convertible bonds due 2015, which constitutes the first issue by a Spanish company of a US-style convertible instrument
• 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.
• the lending banks on the around €1.4bn financing granted to Red Eléctrica de España for the acquisition of the electricity distribution network owned by Endesa Distribución Eléctrica
• Obrascón Huarte Laín on its €700m liability management program, including a high-yield issue and an exchange offer