João Cavalcanti

Practice Areas

Corporate/M&A; Cross-Border Transactions; Joint Ventures; Private Equity; Corporate Reorganisations; Serving Agribusiness, Industry & Investors in Brazil’s Midwest; Spain and Latin America Desk.

João Cavalcanti is a dual-qualified Brazilian and Spanish lawyer whose practice is built around cross-border corporate and M&A work involving European, North American and Latin American counterparties, with a recognised expertise on the Iberian Peninsula–Latin America corridor. He advises strategic investors, private equity sponsors, sovereign wealth funds, listed multinationals and family-owned groups on the full lifecycle of corporate transactions: domestic and cross-border M&A, joint ventures, carve-outs, corporate reorganisations, foreign direct investment structures, shareholders' arrangements and post-closing matters.

His cross-border practice spans the principal capital flows into and out of Brazil. He regularly acts on transactions involving US strategic buyers and private equity sponsors, including carve-outs of Brazilian and Latin American business units acquired by US-based technology groups and exits of US-sponsored portfolios from Brazilian platforms. He has substantial experience with UK and continental European counterparties, including London-listed multinationals divesting Brazilian operations and European industrial and energy groups establishing or restructuring their Brazilian footprint. Sovereign wealth funds from the Gulf and Asia have featured as coinvestors in Brazilian infrastructure mandates he has led. Across all of these flows, he routinely co-counsels with leading US, UK, Spanish and other European law firms.

Within this broader cross-border practice, his Spain-related work runs in both directions of the corridor and is the subject of his Chambers Global Foreign Expert recognition. On the inbound side, he counsels Spanish strategic groups and Spanish-domiciled investment vehicles entering or expanding in Brazil and other Latin American jurisdictions, with particular experience in regulated industries such as energy (free-market trading, distributed generation and renewables), infrastructure, technology, food and consumer goods. On the outbound side, he advises Brazilian companies investing in Spain and using Spain as a platform for European and broader EMEA operations, structuring acquisitions, joint ventures and shareholder arrangements that reconcile the Brazilian corporate framework with Spanish company law, tax treaty considerations and EU regulatory constraints.

Beyond the cross-border practice, João also advises Brazilian mid-market companies and family-owned groups in the Center-West region of Brazil – a market reshaped by accelerated agribusiness, energy and infrastructure investment – on M&A, succession planning, holding structures, shareholder agreements and corporate governance.

Career

João Cavalcanti is name partner and Head of Corporate and M&A at Castro e Dantas, Cavalcanti, Alves Advogados (CDCA), a Brazilian law firm headquartered in Goiânia, which he joined in 2025 to build and lead a transactional practice serving foreign direct investment into Brazil and the rapidly growing Center-West Brazilian market.

Before founding CDCA's corporate practice, João spent thirteen years at Mattos Filho Advogados, one of Brazil's leading full-service law firms, where he became a partner in the Corporate and M&A group. During that period he led some of the firm's most complex cross-border mandates, working opposite and alongside top-tier US, UK and continental European law firms on transactions for international strategic and financial investors, multinational corporates and sovereign wealth funds. He continues to act for several of those clients on post-closing matters and on new mandates from his current platform.

His Iberian and broader international footprint took shape well before his years as a Brazilian M&A partner. Between 2007 and 2012 João lived in Barcelona, where he completed an LL.M. in International Business Law at ESADE Business & Law School and an LL.M. in Tax Law at the Universitat de Barcelona, while working with leading Iberian firms on transactions linking Europe, the United States and Latin America. This formative period shaped the dual-jurisdiction, multi-language profile that now defines his practice: he is admitted to both the Brazilian Bar (OAB) and the Spanish Bar, is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English, and maintains active professional relationships across the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and other key jurisdictions.

He has been recognised by Chambers Global as a Foreign Expert in Spain for Corporate/M&A in Brazil, in addition to other rankings and market recognitions reflecting his profile as a Brazilian M&A practitioner with deep Iberian roots and a broad international transactional footprint.

Languages Spoken

Spanish;

English;

Portuguese (native).

Publications

João is a regular contributor to legal and business publications on M&A, cross-border investment and the consolidation of regional Brazilian markets. Recent articles include:

"M&A in Brazil's Midwest: Beyond Agribusiness" (April 2026) – on the consolidation wave underway in Goiás and the broader Brazilian Midwest across sectors that extend well beyond agribusiness, including private healthcare, machinery dealership networks, bioenergy, internet service providers, education, real estate, digital infrastructure and strategic mining, and on the structural conditions that make the region a new frontier for Brazilian and international M&A activity. Link: https://cdcaadvogados.com.br/en/ma-in-brazils-midwest-beyondagribusiness/

"Goiás on the Global Data Center Map" (September 2025) – on Brazil's federal Special Tax Regime for Data Centers (REDATA), enacted through Provisional Measure No. 1,318/2025, and the complementary state-level framework introduced by Goiás's Complementary Law No. 205/2025 recognising digital infrastructure as a matter of strategic public interest, positioning the state as a destination for global hyperscale data center investment. Link: https://cdcaadvogados.com.br/en/goias-on-the-global-data-center-map/

"RWI in Brazil: A Viable Alternative for Protection in M&A Transactions?" (March 2026) – on the emergence of representations and warranties insurance in Brazilian M&A practice, including the shift towards locally issued policies governed by Brazilian law, Brazilian-Real-denominated premiums and expanded coverage for previously excluded risks such as tax and environmental contingencies, with reflections on the product's fit for highly competitive sale processes and clean-exit private equity transactions. Link: https://cdcaadvogados.com.br/en/rwi-in-brazil-a-viable-alternative-for-protection-in-ma-transactions/

Work Highlights

João has advised on numerous highly complex transactions involving private equity funds, publicly traded companies and businesses across multiple sectors. Selected publicly disclosed highlights – with an aggregate transaction value exceeding BRL 15 billion – include:

Advising General Atlantic on the sale of a minority stake in XP Investimentos to Itaú Unibanco.

Advising Advent International on the acquisition of a controlling stake in Grupo CRM, owner of the Kopenhagen and Chocolates Brasil Cacau brands.

Advising Conglomerado Financeiro Alfa and its shareholders on its sale to Banco Safra S.A.

Advising Atakarejo Distribuidor de Alimentos e Bebidas and its shareholders on the sale of a stake to a fund managed by Patria Investimentos.

Advising Compass Group on the sale of GRSA and its subsidiaries to L.C. Restaurantes, part of Grupo GPS.

Advising US multinational Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen) on its projects in Brazil, including the sale of its indirect equity interests in Profarma Specialty to CM Hospitalar S.A. (Viveo).

Advising Patria Investimentos on a range of matters, including its partnerships for investments in toll road concessions in Brazil.

Advising French insurer CNP Assurances on the sale of its stake in Wiz to Integra Participações.

Advising Spanish energy retailer Factor Energía on its joint venture with Path Investimentos for entry into Brazil's free electricity market.

Advising on the acquisition and sale of five hospitals, acting for both buyers and sellers and for clients including DASA, Rede D'Or São Luiz, Unimed ABC and Grupo São Francisco Saúde.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Brazil; Spain.

Industry Sector Expertise

Energy & Renewables

Financial Services

Insurance

Healthcare & Hospitals

Consumer Goods, Food & Retail

Infrastructure (Toll Roads and Concessions)

Technology & Digital Infrastructure

Education