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Portrait of Francisco Xavier de Almeida

Francisco Xavier de Almeida

Partner
Lawyer

CMS Portugal
Rua Castilho 50
1250-071 Lisbon
Portugal
Languages Portuguese, English, Spanish

Francisco Xavier de Almeida is a Partner of Corporate M&A practice. He is a member of CMS Portugal's Board of Directors.

With 25 years’ experience, develops his activity mainly in corporate M&A and banking and financial law, namely in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, acquisition financing, bond issues, public offerings, credit securitisation and structured products.

He also has extensive experience in special situations, restructuring and transactions involving distressed assets and NPLs.

Francisco Xavier de Almeida is individually ranked for Corporate M&A, Private Equity, Capital Markets e Banking & Finance, by Chambers Global and Chambers and Partners Europe, for the past 15 years and he is recommended for Commercial, Corporate and M&A, Capital Markets and Banking & Finance by Legal 500, 2022. Moreover, he is recognized for Corporate Law, Banking and Finance e Capital Markets Law by Best Lawyers, 2022. Also he is recognized as Global Leader Capital Markets - Debt & Equity and Structured Finance 2022, by WWL. Also, he is recognized as Highly Recommended lawyer for Banking & Finance and Investment Funds – Private Equity and as Excellent for Corporate M&A by Leaders League, 2023.

Joined CMS Portugal in 2007. 

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Francisco Xavier de Almeida is noted for his work on debt transactions including EMTN programmes and bond issuances as well as his regulatory advice. One client says: "He is a very practical lawyer in terms of solving problems."

Chambers Europe (2021)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida is praised by clients for his "quick thinking and innovative solutions." He frequently assists companies in the energy, telecommunications and real estate sectors.

Chambers Europe (2021)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida regularly advises on corporate finance and regulatory issues. One client enthuses: "He is a very practical lawyer when it comes to solving problems."

Chambers Europe (2021)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida frequently furnishes advice to private equity funds and corporate investors on acquisitions of shares. He represents clients from the energy and telecoms sectors.

Chambers Europe (2021)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida is frequently seen advising clients from the healthcare, media and energy sectors. Clients highlight that "he is focused on closing the deals while proactively supporting both the structuring of the operations and the negotiation phase, always offering sophisticated and constructive advice."

Chambers Global (2022)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida advises on corporate finance and regulatory issues. He is known among market commentators as an important figure in CMS's banking practice.

Chambers Global (2022)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida of CMS has considerable experience in bond issuances and the establishment of commercial paper or EMTN programmes. "He does a really nice job in coordinating the team, is very practical and commercial, and can both identify and mitigate risks," enthuses one client.

Chambers Europe (2022)

Clients say that Francisco Xavier de Almeida is "very switched-on and commercial." As part of his broader corporate practice, he advises investment funds on energy sector and real estate transactions. He also advises on growth capital investments.

Chambers Europe (2022)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida has worked with us for a long time, always with excellent results. He is focused on closing deals, proactively supporting both the structuring of transactions and the negotiation phase, always offering sophisticated and constructive advice. We feel that he is a true partner of our team and together we achieved great results.
‘I recommend Francisco Xavier de Almeida for his 100% availability, ability to resolve issues/problems and knowledge of the capital market products. I strongly recommend them!’

Legal 500 (2022)

Clients say that "Francisco Xavier de Almeida is very engaged in the transactions, with a senior level of knowledge, involved and approachable." "Francisco has been of great assistance in advising and negotiating deals.”

Chambers Global (2023)

Francisco Xavier de Almeida advises on corporate finance and regulatory issues. He is also well versed in financial regulations matters.

Chambers Global (2023)

Memberships & Roles

  • Member of the Portuguese Bar Association since 1997 
  • Registered in the Law Society of England and Wales since 1999
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Publications

  • ALMEIDA, Francisco Xavier de; RODRIGUES, Vasco, - “Current Status on Portuguese Private Equity”, Private Equity, Worldwatch, Financier Worldwide, 2010
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Lectures list

  • Assistant Professor at Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 1995 - 1997
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Education

  • Law degree, Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
  • Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Banking and Finance, London School of Economics and Political Science
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25/01/2022
CMS and PLMJ ad­vised Ca­tella CER in first in­vest­ment in Por­tugal with c....
CMS Por­tugal and PLMJ ad­vised the Ca­tella European Res­id­en­tial Fund (CER) in their first ven­ture in­to the emer­ging Por­tuguese in­sti­tu­tion­al in­vest­ment mar­ket for stu­dent hous­ing, with the ac­quis­i­tion...
31/08/2020
Sta­bil­isa­tion and re­struc­tur­ing law in Por­tugal
1. Which fin­an­cial (not tax or la­bour) short-term com­pens­a­tion schemes for im­me­di­ate losses due to so­cial dis­tan­cing meas­ures have been im­ple­men­ted? For which in­dus­tries/sizes of busi­ness? A morator­i­um...
07/07/2020
IFLR1000 dis­tin­guishes CMS Rui Pena & Ar­naut
CMS Rui Pena & Ar­naut has just been high­lighted by the in­ter­na­tion­al dir­ect­ory IFLR1000.The firm is re­com­men­ded in the fol­low­ing areas:Bank­ing;Cap­it­al Mar­kets: Debt;Cap­it­al Mar­kets: Equity;M&A;Pro­ject...
09/06/2020
Im­pact of COV­ID-19 on European M&A activ­ity
The CMS Cor­por­ate/M&A Group teamed up with in­vest­ment bank Cred­it Suisse to ana­lyse the fin­an­cial and leg­al im­plic­a­tions of the COV­ID-19 pan­dem­ic on M&A trans­ac­tions in West­ern Europe
06/05/2020
Meet the Law | The new CM­VM Reg­u­la­tion es­tab­lish­ing meas­ures to pre­vent...
On April 17, 2020, Reg­u­la­tion no. 2/2020 ("Reg­u­la­tion") of the Por­tuguese Se­cur­it­ies Mar­ket Com­mis­sion ("CM­VM") has entered in­to force, reg­u­lat­ing Law no. 83/2017, of Au­gust 18, es­tab­lish­ing meas­ures...
27/04/2020
Meet the Law | Gen­er­al prin­ciples for the cre­ation and reg­u­la­tion of reg­u­lat­ory...
Last April 21st, Res­ol­u­tion of the Coun­cil of Min­is­ters no. 29/2020 was pub­lished in Diário da República, es­tab­lish­ing the gen­er­al prin­ciples for the cre­ation and reg­u­la­tion of reg­u­lat­ory sand­boxes...
10/09/2018
In­ter­na­tion­al Cap­it­al Mar­kets Group
De­liv­er­ing true depth of ex­pert­ise and re­sources across the globe We are de­lighted to in­tro­duce you to the latest edi­tion of the CMS In­ter­na­tion­al Cap­it­al Mar­kets Con­tacts Book. Our 2017 three-way mer­ger...
29/09/2017
End of the bear­er se­cur­it­ies
Fol­low­ing the pro­hib­i­tion of the is­su­ance of bear­er se­cur­it­ies, in force as from the 4th of May 2017, the trans­ition­al re­gime that es­tab­lishes the con­ver­sion of bear­er se­cur­it­ies in­to nom­in­at­ive se­cur­it­ies...
04/09/2017
New Le­gis­la­tion Con­cern­ing Re­gis­tra­tion of Be­ne­fi­cial Own­er
New Le­gis­la­tion Con­cern­ing Re­gis­tra­tion of Be­ne­fi­cial Own­er­Law No 89/2017, of 21 Au­gust, which ap­proves the Leg­al Re­gime of the Cent­ral Re­gister of Ef­fect­ive Be­ne­fi­ciar­ies, thus trans­pos­ing Chapter III...
18/08/2017
Ap­pro­pri­ation of pledged as­set un­der com­mer­cial pledge leg­al re­gime
On the 1st of Ju­ly 2017, new rules con­cern­ing the ap­pro­pri­ation of the pledged as­set un­der com­mer­cial pledge came in­to force, fore­seen in De­cree-Law no. 75/2016, of 26th Ju­ly.These new rules ex­pressly...
01/08/2017
Sim­pli­fied pro­ced­ure for share cap­it­al in­crease by con­ver­sion of share­hold­er...
On Ju­ly 1st it was en­acted De­cree Law no. 79/2017 of 30 June, which, with­in the Cap­it­al­ising Pro­gram (Pro­grama Cap­it­al­iz­ar), has cre­ated a sim­pli­fied mech­an­ism for the share cap­it­al in­crease by means...
01/08/2017
Share cap­it­al in­crease by con­ver­sion of share­hold­er loans
On Ju­ly 1st it was en­acted De­cree Law no. 79/2017 of 30 June, which, with­in the Cap­it­al­ising Pro­gram (Pro­grama Cap­it­al­iz­ar), has cre­ated a sim­pli­fied mech­an­ism for the share cap­it­al in­crease by means...