Augusto Santoro

Augusto has over 20 years of experience specialising in M&A, private equity, equity capital markets and corporate law across a wide range of industries, in particular healthcare and pharma, TMT, fashion and luxury goods, gaming and financial services.

He regularly advises domestic and international clients, ranging from financial institutions, private equity funds and industrial players, on a number of highly complex and innovative transactions. He advises clients on M&A deals, private equity and venture capital investments, IPOs, takeover bids and public M&A, rights issues, business transfers and extraordinary corporate transactions in general.

He actively collaborates with the Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana), where he is also a lecturer for the "corporate governance" and "generational transition" modules. He regularly speaks at seminars and conferences on M&A, corporate governance, remuneration and incentive policies and corporate matters in general as well as he is lecturer for masters at major universities, institutions and associations.

Augusto is a member of the board of directors of leading Italian companies, of the supervisory bodies and is secretary to the boards of directors of companies and groups. He regularly publishes articles in leading Italian law journals and industry publications.

Augusto's experience includes:

• advising a leading French private equity fund and the target in connection with the sale of its share capital to the world's leading player in pharmaceutical logistics
• assisting one of the leading manufacturers of high-end footwear in the acquisition of a luxury brand, also through the execution of a capital increase in kind through the first voluntary 'white wash' procedure carried out on the market
• assisting a first standing investor in relation to the launching of a public tender offer for the acquisition of Italy's leading newspaper
• advising a leading licit gaming concessionaire in the business combination with one of the world's leading gaming software manufacturers
• assisting leading Italian and international banks in connection with the IPO on the regulated market of the leading Italian player in the supply of inertial systems

Background

Prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills, he was an equity partner and head of the equity capital markets practice at a prestigious international law firm.