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Two years ago many lawyers found their summer holidays cancelled without warning as Gas Natural launched its bid to acquire Spain's leading electricity generator, Endesa. The following summer break could not have been more different as the sub-prime crisis spread to Europe and Iberian lawyers started wondering whether there would be a job to come back to.
Hace dos años muchos abogados tuvieron que cancelar de forma repentina sus vacaciones de verano debido a la oferta de compra de Gas Natural a Endesa, empresa eléctrica líder en España.
El contraste con este verano no podría ser mayor, con la crisis crediticia extendida por toda Europa, lo que provoca que los abogados de la Península Ibérica empiezan a temer si podrán mantener sus puestos de trabajo a la vuelta del verano.
Sin embargo, el mercado español lleva una dinámica frenética de intentos de refinanciación de la deuda y de varias empresas insolventes importantes. Estando a punto de imprimir este número, vemos cómo Gas Natural repite el verano de hace dos años, preparando una oferta de compra a la constructora ACS por un 43% del tercer operador eléctrico en España, Unión Fenosa, es una apuesta calculada y sofisticada; además, ha aparecido la oferta de British Airways a Iberia, igualmente estratégica y una prueba de lo anti-cíclico que se presenta el mercado jurídico.
Estas dos operaciones prueban la necesidad de una innovadora forma de reflexión jurídica y perversamente, también representan la pérdida para muchos abogados de sus vacaciones estivales. Sin embargo, y considerando la situación económica en Europa, en esta ocasión éstos podrán explicar a sus familias que aunque sea verano, si hay un golpe de frío se deberá buscar el calor donde sea. In the event, the Spanish market in particular has seen a stream of frenetic attempts to refinance debt and some significant insolvencies. There has also been intelligent bargain hunting by financial institutions and companies that did not over extend themselves during the boom years. Further proof, if required, of the counter-cyclical nature of legal advise.
The Global Special Report – starting on page 40 - indicates however that Iberia's top businesses are in fact also now accelerating their global expansion. A US lawyer, visiting Madrid on a road-show to Spanish businesses, told me that the US economy will undoubtedly bounce back and that he expects Iberian companies to play a major investment role. Caja Madrid has already bought its first US bank. Other businesses see further opportunities in Central Europe, Latin America and Canada and now Santander has bid €1.5bn to acquire Alliance & Leicester, the UK's seventh largest bank.
For Iberian law firms the current question is where to focus effort. As we see in the News Focus (Listening to Clients), General Counsel are becoming increasingly sophisticated at selecting firms for specific requirements. It is no longer enough, they say, to be good lawyers, and they are now looking for a different type of relationship with their external legal advisers.
As we go to press we see Gas Natural repeating the summer of two years ago. Its bid for constructor ACS's 45% stake in Spain's third-ranked generator Unión Fenosa is sophisticated and timely.
British Airways' proposed merger with Iberia is equally soundly conceived. The two operations underline the strength of innovative legal thinking in the Iberian market and, perversely, that lawyers are going to lose another summer vacation. Yet, given the state of the EU's economies, this time they will be able to explain to their families that though it may be summer, in a cold spell you need all the heat you can get.
Moray McLaren
Editor
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