Uría Menéndez, awarded at the China Law & Practice Awards 2011 for its participation in the first acquisition of a controlling stake of electrical transmission lines by a foreign state-owned company
Uría Menéndez received acclaim for its role in the acquisition by State Grid Corporation of China of 3.200 km of electrical transmission lines in Brazil where it assisted a Spanish group of infrastructure companies.
September 26, 2011Uría Menéndez has been awarded at the annual award ceremony of the Asian magazine China Law & Practice in the China Outbound Award category. The publication, which is part of the Euromoney group, recognised Uría Menéndez’s participation in the transaction, through its Beijing, Madrid and São Paulo offices, as legal advisors to the sellers in the China State Grid - Brazilian Assets’ deal. This transaction was also nominated for the Energy and Natural Resources category.
In this deal, which closed on 15 December last year, the State Grid Corporation of China, the world’s largest electricity utility company, carried out its first non-Asian acquisition by acquiring seven concessionaires with a total of 3,200 km of electrical transmission lines in Brazil from a consortium of Spanish infrastructure companies. In a separate simultaneous acquisition, an eighth transmission line, LT Triangulo S.A., was purchased by the publicly listed Spanish company Elecnor for approximately USD 200 million, including debt.
Uría Menéndez advised the sellers from its offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America with a team of lawyers led by partners Juan Martín Perrotto (Beijing office), Juan Francisco Falcón (Madrid) and Luis Acuña (São Paulo). The Brazilian firm Dias Carneiro Advogados advised the sellers on Brazilian law with a team headed by Rafael D’Avila. The same teams also acted as counsel on the Triangulo acquisition.
Juan Martín Perrotto, the Latin American partner that manages Uría Menéndez’s Beijing office and heads the Asian practice of the firm, attended the ceremony to collect the award and stated: “we are very proud to receive this award that reflects Uría Menéndez’s ability to coordinate and execute deals which involve jurisdictions and cultures as different as those in Latin-America, Asia and Europe.”
China Law & Practice awards the most innovative transactions from last year as well as the legal advisors involved. The IFLR 1000 and Asialaw Profiles submissions for this year were reviewed to decide on the deal and team shortlists for these awards.