Demarest welcomes the annual meeting of Basque Country companies together with SPRI

Some days ago, Demarest welcomed in its São Paulo office the most representative Basque Country companies that are doing business in Brazil.

The event was organized together with Sociedad para la Transformación Competitiva, S.A. (SPRI) which is the Basque Business Development Agency, dependent on the Basque Government, whose purpose is to support and promote the economic growth of Basque companies, through the assistance and services it provides.

The event, held in the Spanish language, was an excellent opportunity to publicly introduce to all attendees the Spanish Desk recently created by Demarest. To that end, please note that Demarest has a Spanish Desk, among others, offering a tailor-made service to our Spanish clients and formed by professionals very fluent in Spanish, some of them having obtained their doctoral degrees from leading Spanish universities, such as ESADE.

After a welcome meeting, Demarest's auditorium received the representatives of Basque Country companies, who attended a forum opened by a speech of Mr. Paulo Abasolo (Director of SPRI Brazil) who welcomed the attendees and introduced the first speaker, Professor Simão Davi Silber, Doctor in Economics from the Yale University and Professor of Economics at the University of Sao Paulo.

Mr. Silber offered an overview of the current economic situation of Brazil after the recent general elections and provided the attendees with his own forecast for the next few years.

After a dynamic and very interesting speech, the participants had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Gabriel Kuznietz, M&A partner at Demarest, who introduced Demarest law firm and, based on his extensive experience attending foreign companies in Brazil, gave a lecture on the main mistakes to be avoided by non-residents doing business in Brazil.

Mr. Kuznietz graduated from Universidade Nacional de Córdoba Law School in 1994, earned an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1997 and graduated from Universidade de São Paulo Law School in 2006. 

After an excellent and interactive speech, Mr. Douglas Mota, tax partner at Demarest, closed the first part of the event with a brilliant lecture on Brazilian tax issues that directly affect foreign companies.

Mr. Mota graduated from Centro Universitário FIEO Law School in 1998 and earned an LL.M. in Tax Law from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in 2009.

After those presentations, the event was closed with a session at which the attendees debated the hottest topics concerning situations CEOs of Basque Country companies have to face in their daily routine.

Demarest and SPRI will look forward to welcoming Basque Country companies again for another exciting day of learning and networking in the first half of 2015.