Shearman & Sterling was awarded Latin Lawyer's Capital Markets Deal of the Year for its work advising BNDES Participações S.A. – BNDESPar, a subsidiary of Brazilian state-owned development bank BNDES, as selling shareholder in the US$6.9 billion offering of shares issued by Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. (Eletrobras), the largest electric power generation and transmission company in Latin America. The transaction was the largest Brazilian privatization in two decades, the second-ever largest equity offering in Brazil and the second-largest share offering in the world in 2022.
The transaction also marked the first-ever Brazilian privatization executed through a public offering. As part of the privatization and corporate reorganization of Eletrobras, the transaction resulted in the carve out of two new subsidiaries, the renewable energy group Itaipú and state-owned Eletronuclear.
The Latin Lawyer awards were announced on May 12.