Top firms help as Qatar Holding takes stake in Santander Brazil

Qatar made the acquisition through an agreement to buy $2.72bn (£1.74bn) of mandatory convertible bonds to be issued by ­Santander.

The deal makes Qatar the second-biggest shareholder in the Latin American bank.

Cuatrecasas and White & Case acted for Qatar. It is not thought that the company instructed Brazilian counsel.

From Cuatrecasas, partners Fernando Torrente and Gerard Correig advised on the corporate and market share aspects while partners Carlos Ferrer and Josep Marsal advised on tax issues.

White & Case did not respond to requests for comment but São Paulo partner Donald Baker is understood to have worked on the deal.

Slaughter and May, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Brazilian firm Pinheiro Neto Advogados and Uría Menéndez all acted for Banco Santander (Brazil).

Leading for Slaughter and May was partner Roland Turnill on the corporate side, and Miranda Leung and Richard Levitt on the financing side, also partners. Associates Hugh Phillips and Gerard Howell also advised on the deal.

For Uría Menéndez, Madrid-based partners Eva Ferrada Lavall and Salvador Sánchez-Terán, senior associate Francisco San Miguel Barbón and associate María Vidal-Pardo del Río advised on corporate matters, while partner Jesús López Tello and senior associate Víctor Manuel Martín Samaniego led on tax issues, also from Madrid.

Luis Acuña Alonso, a partner in Uría Menéndez’s São Paulo office, was also involved.

For Pinheiro Neto Advogados, partner José Luiz Homem de Mello advised on the deal.

Barclays Capital acted as exclusive financial adviser to Qatar, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised Banco ­Santander.