Professional notice
Magalhães, Ferraz e Nery Advocacia has the largest competition practice of any GCR 100 firm in Brazil. It boasts 20 competition specialists, including three equity partners and two in-house economists. Practice co-head Carlos Francisco de Magalhães is a Who's Who nominee. In August, after our review period ended, competition partner Paulo Mattos joined the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development.
Magalhães Ferraz
| Global heads: Carlos Francisco de Magalhães, Tercio Sampaio Ferraz and Nelson Nery |
| Home jurisdiction: Brazil |
| Total size of firm: 20 |
| No. of competition lawyers: 18 |
| % of firm specialised: 90 |
| Who's Who nominees: 1 |
| Equity partners: 3 |
| Senior associates: 6 |
| Associates: 7 |
| No. of lateral partner hires: 0 |
| No. of partner departures: 0 |
| No. of internal promotions: 0 |
The firm saw a significant amount of merger control work this year. For example, it advised Latin America's biggest brewing company, AmBev, on its acquisition of assets belonging to Cintra; and pulp and paper company Suzano on its joint acquisition with Votorantim of Ripasa. The deal was the largest in the Brazilian paper and cellulose market.
Magalhães also represented Nestlé before the Brazilian antitrust authorities and the judiciary in relation to its acquisition of chocolate-maker Garoto. And it advised steelmaker Gerdau on its joint acquisition with Santander of Corporación.
The firm was busy with cartel work, too. For example, it defended meat exporter Frigorífico Bertin, cement producer Lafarge and orange juice producer Citrosuco in three separate cartel investigations. It also advised Brazil's largest entertainment company, TV Globo, on the Brazilian antitrust authorities' decisions concerning agreements in the transmission of its television programmes.
It represented AmBev during an investigation of commercial practices – and vertical restrictions in the beverage market in particular. And it advised telecoms operator Telefónica on three cease and desist agreements, as well as on a conflict of competence between the Brazilian competition authority, CADE, and the country's telecoms agency, ANATEL.
Magalhães's other competition clients include Banco Itaú, Brazil's second-biggest private bank; Bunge Fertilizantes, the country's leading fertiliser company; Copersucar, one of world's largest sugar and alcohol producers; General Motors; PepsiCo; Peugeot Citroën; Philips; Procter & Gamble; Royal Ahold; Saint Gobain; Siemens; and TIM Celular.