Portugal’s Grupo Visabeira finalist in FT Innovative lawyer awards Europe

Grupo Visabeira’s in-house legal team has been shortlisted for the upcoming 2023 FT Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe in the “Legal Department: Enabling Business Growth” category.

The awards are given by the Financial Times to recognise innovative law firms and in-house legal teams in the European market for their originality, leadership, and impact on their own business structures and respective stakeholders. Grupo Visabeira’s in-house legal team was responsible for the majority of the legal work behind the scenes, in particular within the recent growth phase the Portuguese conglomerate is facing following Goldman Sachs Asset Management €200 million investment in Constructel Visabeira (Grupo Visabeira subsidiary), in exchange for a minority equity stake in its share capital. Besides the expected impact at the business level (by undertaking M&A transactions across Europe and USA and further accelerating organic growth), this investment has also pointed out a structural change in the “corporate culture” of the Portuguese family based multinational and multi sector group, by dealing with new stakeholders views and demands (Shareholders, Board Members) and with uplift processes on policies design, procedural implementation and practices monitoring on different compliance areas and levels (eg. ESG; sanctions and export controls; EHS).

Isabel Fernandes, GC at Grupo Visabeira, said: “To be recognised by the Financial Times is an honour and another step towards achieving our vision of being strategic partners of our internal business client as well as external customers.”