Iberia has clearly not proved immune to the global downturn in M&A, say lawyers, with transactional and private equity both significantly down. But while companies may not be expanding, many are restructuring and refinancing

The current economic and financial crisis is raising issues that many companies may have never before experienced, says Pedro Rueda, partner at Araoz & Rueda in Madrid. While legal advisers need of course to understand their

Companies contemplating a sale or acquisition in the current business market need to understand that deal valuations and strategies that may have worked only a year ago are now totally outdated, says Fernando Torrente, cohead

Even in the midst of the current economic crisis, and fragility of many business sectors, with the right motivation deals can still be done, say Vanda Cascão and Sofia Barata of Vieira de Almeida (

Despite the collapse of highly leveraged private equity activity, start-up and venture capital investment remains active says Isabel Dutilh, managing partner of Dutilh Abogados in Madrid. But while investments rely much less on bank financing

The past few months may have seen Portuguese and Spanish investors freeze their international expansion, in line with uncertainty over company and asset values and finance availability, but the latter half of 2009 will likely see

Lessons from the past can help consortia prepare for future Portuguese projects, says Maria Castelos, partner in the PLMJ project team.