Pedro Pessanha

Of Counsel | Oporto

Practice Areas
Corporate and M&A
Real Estate
Industries
Shopping Centres & Retail Parks
Private Clients & Family Businesses
Energy & Natural Resources
Desks
German Desk
Languages
  • English
  • German
  • French
  • Spanish
Contacts

Pedro Pessanha is an Of Counsel at Abreu Advogados since 2025 and a member of its Advisory Board. He works mainly in the areas of corporate, commercial, M&A and real estate.

He has intervention in matters related to the acquisition and sale of companies, business restructuring, mergers or demergers of companies, international contracts and monitoring of foreign investment, having advised national and international clients in the petrochemical sector, in the health sector – in the sub-sector of complementary means of diagnosis – , in the textile industry and in the transport sector.

With a vast experience in the acquisition and sale of real estate assets, with special focus on the wine sector, namely in the Douro, Dão, Alentejo and Vinhos Verdes demarcated region.

He is also involved in the structuring of international project finance operations, regularly monitoring renewable energy projects at a national scale.

He was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Banco Português de Investimento S.A. and BPI Private Equity – Sociedade de Capital de Risco S.A. from 2016 until both companies were dissolved by merger into Banco BPI SA. He also served as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Altri SGPS SA, Ramada Investimentos e Indústria SA and COFINA – SGPS S.A., and is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of the former.

Pedro Pessanha is an Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Belgium in Oporto since 2009, having been awarded in 2023 by the King “Chevalier de L’Ordre da la Couronne” .

He was Partner of Abreu Advogados between 2022 and 2025.

Experience

Advising a national client on the purchase of Port Wine production assets from a multinational group and, two years later, on the acquisition of all the brands and other industrial property linked to the initial business.

Advising a Portuguese group in the acquisition of a major drinks' distribution company in the UK.

Advising national clients active in the wine sector on the acquisition or sale of companies, assets, negotiation of joint ventures and corporate reorganisation;

Advising a Spanish listed company in the acquisition of a major international petrochemicals group with plants and companies in the UK, Turkey, Romania and the Netherlands.

Assistance and supervision in the creation of start-ups in the private health sector, in complementary means of diagnosis, and monitoring of their development, namely through the acquisition of successive clinical analysis laboratories, companies owning imaging units and cardiology units, reorganization of the company and the group of companies owned by the client following the entry of investors (some institutional) in its capital, assistance in the sale, ten years later, of the same group, in a competitive bid, to a multinational group in the health sector.

Advising businesses and family groups in various sectors on corporate and shareholder reorganization matters, often aiming at a generational transmission or separation of inter-family businesses and assets.

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Education

Escola de Direito do Porto da Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Complementary training in accounting and management and in economic and financial analysis of companies (1983)

Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra

Law Degree (1981)

Knowledge

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