Linklaters

Fielding a team of around 100 lawyers, the majority Spanish, Linklaters is one of the most established and renowned law firms in Spain.

In addition to our highly reputed team dedicated to Spanish law, in Madrid we also have  lawyers specialising in English and U.S. law advising on the international aspects of the transactions in which we are involved. Our people also include four academics (catedráticos)  who are highly regarded in the Spanish legal  field.  As a result, Linklaters’ Madrid office is able to offer technical excellence and sound and comprehensive advice on almost all key areas of business law.

The corporate/M&A (including private equity) and finance (including  banking and capital markets) departments make up the firm’s core practice areas, complemented by market-leading specialist teams in real estate, competition/antitrust, public/administrative law,  tax, employment, litigation & arbitration and restructuring & insolvency.

We have been involved in many of the highest profile and most complex corporate and financial transactions, both domestic and cross-border, that have taken place in Spain in recent years, advising the world’s leading corporates, financial institutions and investment banks.

As the only international firm with its own offices in Spain and Portugal, we are able to offer a fully integrated Iberian practice, thus providing clients with a one-stop shop. We also work very often with the São Paulo and New York teams on international transactions in Latin America and the United States.  

Recent transactions include advising

• 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
• 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 both UNNIM Banc and Cajasur, including their auction and subsequent sale to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK), respectively.
• Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) on its takeover bid for German listed infrastructure company Hochtief
• 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
• 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 by 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

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