Cuatrecasas advised Henko Partners, QDI, and the remaining minority shareholders in the competitive sale of Quadrante Group to Permira, a global private equity firm. The founding partners of QDI and Henko Partners will remain significant investors in Quadrante Group. This investment aims to accelerate Quadrante's international growth, particularly in the United States, and position the company as a global engineering partner for the development of energy transition assets and critical infrastructure.
Quadrante is a leading consulting firm in the Iberian Peninsula, specializing in engineering, architecture, and sustainability. It works primarily with international clients and has a presence in Europe, Africa, Brazil, and Latin America.
Henko Partners is an Iberian private equity fund, specializing in supporting small and medium-sized companies of excellence in Portugal and Spain, as well as supporting medium-sized companies in markets with long-term growth trends.
Cuatrecasas' legal counsel consisted of supporting the sellers in all legal aspects of the process, specifically in conducting vendor due diligence, structuring the transaction, assisting in the competitive bidding process, negotiating with the main investors, and providing support up to the signing. Cuatrecasas also advised on the reinvestment process and the shareholders' agreement to be executed within that framework.
The Cuatrecasas team that advised Henko Partners and QDI was led by Mariana Norton dos Reis, Private Equity coordinator and co-coordinator of Commercial, Corporate and M&A, and included, specifically, lawyers Telma Carvalho and Sofia Alves, from the same area, as well as lawyer Tiago Martins de Oliveira, from Tax.
Regarding the transaction, Mariana Norton dos Reis noted that “the process was particularly demanding, given the highly competitive nature of the transaction; Quadrante’s presence in approximately twenty jurisdictions; a structure involving multiple sellers with a rollover component; and a very tight timeline, driven by the need for all parties to capitalize on the investment moment and achieve a swift signing. It is especially gratifying to have advised Henko Partners on the initial investment in Quadrante, to have closely followed the growth of that investment, and now to complete the entire venture capital cycle through to the exit and rollover alongside the founders and management, with such an attractive opportunity resulting from Permira’s investment and the shared ambition to position Quadrante as a leading engineering company focused on sustainability.”
In 2024, Cuatrecasas had already advised Henko Partners on its entry into Quadrante's capital, with the aim of positioning the engineering company as a leader focused on sustainability.
Cuatrecasas is one of the most active law firms advising on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Portugal and Spain, consistently ranking among the top firms in the comparative tables published by Mergermarket and Transactional Track Record (TTR). In the 2025 rankings of these two leading international financial information agencies, Cuatrecasas maintains its first-place position in Portugal for the third consecutive year in Mergermarket, and second place in TTR, based on the volume of transactions advised.
