Professional notice
| Global heads | Bernardo Macedo |
|---|---|
| Home jurisdiction | Brazil |
| Total size of firm | 80 |
| Competition economists | 20 |
| % of firm specialised | 29% |
| Who’s Who Legal: Competition nominees | 2 |
| Group one | 1 |
| Group two | 3 |
| Group three | 5 |
| Group four | 11 |
| Lateral hires | None |
| Departures | None |
| Internal promotions | None |
Brazil-based LCA Consultores is the only Latin American consultancy to feature in the Economics 21. The team is led by Who’s Who Legal: Competition nominee Bernardo Macedo. Macedo has been a non-government adviser to the International Competition Network for 10 years, while Almeida is director of economic affairs for the Brazillian antitrust community association IBRAC.
Cosmetics manufacturers Natura and Avon both hired LCA to help secure unconditional approval for their merger from Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE). Healthcare provider Athena Saúde Espírito Santo also turned to LCA to secure approval for its acquisition of rival São Bernardo Saúde, which CADE conditionally cleared in June 2020 subject to the divestment to a rival of part of their health insurance plans.
LCA also advised optical lens and eyewear producer EssilorLuxottica on its tie-up with retail distributor GrandVision, guided steelmaker Gerdau on its purchase of a majority stake in Siderúrgica Latino-Americana and steered aluminium processor Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio on its acquisition of rolling mill operator Arconic Indústria e Comércio de Metais.
Other notable merger control work includes helping Disney secure the green light on its acquisition of certain assets from 21st Century Fox in February 2019, subject to the divestiture of its Fox Sports channels. CADE and the merging parties later had to scrap the settlement – in part because of the covid-19 pandemic – and instead reached a behavioural agreement that requires Disney to keep all sporting events currently distributed in Brazil on their current schedules for the next three years.
Antitrust litigation is quite rare in Brazil, but LCA is working on several conduct probes. Before CADE, the team advised Brazil’s primary rail transportation service provider Rumo on claims by sugar producer Agrovia that accuse the company of abusing its dominant position by refusing to transport certain sugar shipments.
Founded in 1995, LCA is the largest Brazilian economic consulting firm. We have a highly qualified team of 80 fully dedicated professionals. Our core competencies are in four areas – macroeconomics; market intelligence; investment and corporate finance; and economics & law.
LCA is the leader in competition economics in Brazil, with major achievements in antitrust, litigation and regulation. Its practice covers also trade defense, private litigation, international disputes, arbitration, tax, financial economics, and valuation.
LCA offers a full-service portfolio in the economics & law practice, from strategic and technical counselling and expert economic opinions to interaction with the Brazilian antitrust authorities, regulatory agencies, and the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
LCA has taken part in most high-profile cases brought before the Brazilian antitrust authorities to date, in many sectors, among which beauty, stock market, banking, education, health care, cement, digital markets and advertising, automobile parts, food, beer, petrochemicals and chemicals, retail, tobacco, steel and metallurgy, fertilizer, lenses, fuel, civil aviation, orange juice, pulp and paper, among others.
LCA has been involved in many multijurisdictional cases – such as Natura/Avon, Essilor/Luxxotica/GrandVision, Suzano/Fibria, Basf/Solenis, FX Cartel. We are the only Brazilian consultancy that led cases shortlisted at GCR's Awards. We supported Disney/Fox merger in Brazil, that won the "Merger Matter - Americas" award in 2020 –, and also the Itaú/Edenred merger, that was shortlisted in the same category. In this same edition of the GCR Awards, Google Shopping, which was filed by CADE after a 7 year probe, was short-listed as “Behavioral matter – Americas”.
Our leadership is recognized by Who`s Who Legal – Competition Economists: Bernardo Macedo and Sílvia Almeida are praised as Thought Leaders, and, together with Gustavo Madi, led a team with more than 20 professionals fully dedicated to law & economics, with huge and diversified experience and lasting partnerships with the main law firms in Brazil. These features made us the only Latin American economic consultancy to be listed at Latin Lawyer 250.