Infrastructure

Customized, specialized and multidisciplinary legal solutions in public-infrastructure projects

Our Infrastructure Practice includes top lawyers with outstanding careers and extensive experience in public-infrastructure projects under concession contracts and other forms of public-private collaboration, who act regularly for lenders, public administrations and promoters in the country's public-private partnerships (PPP) and private finance initiatives.

We also advise clients on public law, project financing, M&A transactions and tax law in Spain, Portugal and abroad. Through our lawyers’ excellent teamwork, we have successfully and efficiently handled complex, multidisciplinary projects, giving our clients added value. This is demonstrated by the number and variety of projects on which we have advised clients.

Our work is not limited to the Iberian market, as we have also advised clients on public-private collaboration in other countries, for example, seawater desalination plants, and building and operating electric and renewable-energy infrastructures, in Algeria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Israel, Libya and Tunisia.

Financing infrastructure projects: Our lawyers have advised on some of the most important transactions to finance and refinance infrastructure projects (most of them under concessional contracts) to design, build and operate airports, motorways, ports, underground systems, trams, irrigation infrastructures, hospitals, prisons, and municipal infrastructures such as schools and sports centers.

We have advised on all types of tender processes possible on the Iberian Peninsula, including invitations to tender from the Spanish and Portuguese governments, regional governments and municipal authorities, which involve all kinds of remuneration schemes, ranging from projects with demand risk for toll and shadow-toll systems, to projects with payment based on availability.

Administrative law: We advise public authorities and other public-sector entities on designing and implementing systems to build and operate infrastructures. We analyze the creation and implementation of possible public-private collaboration models under all relevant approaches, including Eurostat considerations. We also draft and review tender documentation, and advise on and follow up on tender processes and the award of public contracts. When we work with public authorities, we often advise on matters arising during project implementation, e.g., changes, non-fulfillment and contract termination.

We provide advice on concession agreements; our work ranges from performing legal audits in tendering-and-award processes to assessing the scope of legal risks linked to the concessional nature of projects, and defining the contractual and legal methods to mitigate such risks. Our lawyers also advise concession holders and their shareholders.

Advising investors on infrastructure projects: We advise on transactions to invest in and acquire companies in the infrastructure sector and auxiliary companies. We assess risks of projects and target companies, while negotiating agreements for concessions’ shareholders, collaboration and joint-venture agreements, sales agreements, and stake acquisitions. Clients range from institutional and private-equity investors to concession holders, concessions’ shareholders, and sometimes public authorities.