December 6, 2010 6:23 PM

Skadden, Linklaters Take Roles on $1.8 Billion Brazil Banking Deal

Posted by Brian Baxter

Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual has agreed to sell a $1.8 billion stake to an investor group led by three of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, according to the Financial Times.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's close ties to São Paulo-based BTG helped it land the work on the capital investment by the investor group, which Bloomberg reports is comprised of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., China Investment Corp., the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and U.S. investment firm J.C. Flowers & Co. Skadden M&A partner Alan Myers in New York led a team from the firm working on the deal for BTG.

The firm has a close relationship to BTG through former partner Jonathan Bisgaier, who opened Skadden's São Paulo office in 2008 before being recruited several months later to become lead in-house counsel at predecessor investment bank BTG Investments. (The American Lawyer's Ross Todd reported on Bisgaier and Brazil's growing legal market for the magazine's global issue in October.)

Bisgaier, a former investment banker himself, turned to Myers and his former firm last year for counsel when BTG bought UBS's Brazilian unit Banco Pactual for $2.5 billion. UBS had bought Banco Pactual in May 2006 for a similar amount, but chose to sell off its newly acquired Brazilian unit in order to raise capital and shore up its balance sheet following the economic downturn of late 2008, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Corporate partner Mauro Sampaio of Brazilian firm Barbosa, Müssnich & Aragão served as local counsel on the latest transaction by BTG, which is owned by Brazilian billionaire André Esteves and is riding an economic boom in the South American country. (Sampaio served as Brazilian counsel to private equity giant Apax Partners on its $1 billion acquisition of computer services company Tivit earlier this year.)

Linklaters corporate partners Alberto Luzarraga and Scott Sonnenblick, U.S. tax head Stephen Land in New York, and private equity partner Carlton Evans in London, advised the investor group along with M&A partners Thiago Sandim and Ricardo Bolan at Brazilian firm Lefosse Advogados in São Paulo. (Lefosse has had a cooperation agreement with Linklaters in Brazil since 2001.)

In addition to the parties mentioned above, other members of the investment group include RIT Capital Partners, the Santo Domingo Group/EXOR SpA, and Inversiones Bahia, which are the investment companies controlled by the wealthy Rothschild, Agnelli, and Motta families, respectively. The investor group will own 19 percent of BTG, Bloomberg reports.

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