Legal advisory Agro & Food Technologies

Since becoming members of INNOVI, the Catalan Wine Industry Cluster by mid November 2015, we have attended various events organised by the Cluster, most of them about the effects of energetic efficiency and renewable energy related issues in the wine sector. The convergence between renewables and sustainability in the Food and beverages industry is a main reason for our presence in INNOVI, but not the most important one.

Our legal advice in the wine sector has focused on corporate restructuration operations, consolidation and M&A. In 2015 we advised SPI Group on its acquisition of the winery Señorío de Arínzano from the Gran Feudo group (assessed by Uría & Menéndez), main property of the FENIX fund, a bank consortium formed by BBVA, Banco Santander, CaixaBank, Sabadell, Bankia and Banco Popular, and assessed by Gómez Acebo-Pombo. In the next years we will close several other transactions that are under way in the same sector. The first relevant experience we had in this field was a M&A operation in 2002, about a winery in the Catalan Priorat region, where Piet Holtrop took part, still working with another firm at that time.

Shortly we will be introducing several new services for the wine-sector in particular, and for the Agro & Food Technology sector in general, consisting in cross-cutting services. Think of sector related corporate, administrative or employment legal advice, and specific services, such as labelling, designation of origin and compliance of other specific regulations of the sector. In this section of our blog we will keep you informed about these matters.

María Ferrer Alcina, co-founder & partner of HOLTROP S.L.P. Transaction & Business Law proceeds from the Agro & Food Technology sector, where she has developed her career as a food technologist during the last 12 years, offering as such interdisciplinary assessment in our team.