Perez-Llorca hires Alantra to raise up to 100 million euros in debt and fund its Latin American growth

Perez-Llorca has engaged Alantra as financial adviser to structure a debt transaction of between 85 and 100 million euros, Expansion reported on 22 October. The firm, Spain's fourth-largest law firm by revenue with more than 200 million euros in income and an EBITDA of around 50 million in 2025, is seeking long-term financing for two goals: refinancing existing debt and backing its international growth, with a focus on Latin America.

The structure: six-to-seven-year bullet loans

The transaction would be arranged through loans with a single repayment at maturity (bullet) over a term of six to seven years. Of the planned total, some 50 million euros would go to refinancing outstanding debt and a further 35 to 50 million would fund the growth plan, in which the Latin American expansion plays a central role. The process was launched after the summer and closing is expected in 2026.

The firm has publicly qualified the scope of the transaction: in its own account, it has not started conversations with financial institutions for the moment and does not contemplate closing the deal this year. A relevant precision for anyone following the process, because it places the Alantra mandate in an early structuring phase rather than in an imminent placement.

The numbers behind the deal

The firm's figures explain lender appetite. With more than 200 million euros in revenue and an EBITDA around 50 million in 2025, the firm presents a solid credit profile for a transaction of this size: the total planned debt would stand at around two times EBITDA, a moderate leverage even by corporate standards. The single repayment at maturity, typical of bullet loans, also avoids draining cash during the investment years and concentrates repayment at a horizon when the new offices should already be profitable.

A market of law firms financed like companies

The move is symptomatic of a trend that is no longer exceptional: major Spanish law firms turn to corporate financing instruments to sustain expansion, technology and hiring plans that require upfront outlays. Long-term debt allows professional partnerships to grow without straining cash flow or distributing less profit among partners in investment years.

No transaction of this kind is free of risks. The main one is executive: Latin American expansion requires integrating different firm cultures, retaining the local partners who bring the client base and sustaining billing standards in markets with more volatile economic cycles. The second is timing: the firm's qualification about talks not yet started suggests effective placement may stretch beyond what an advisory mandate usually anticipates.

There is also a governance dimension that deserves attention. A partnership that takes on long-term debt accepts an implicit discipline: partners must be informed of covenants, distributions become constrained by repayment calendars, and the firm's strategy acquires a fixed horizon it cannot abandon at will. For a profession built on annual profit distribution, that is a cultural shift as significant as the financial one. The firms that manage it well will have built a genuine corporate finance capability; those that manage it poorly will discover that lenders are less patient than partners.

Still, the message to the market is clear. Major Spanish firms no longer conceive growth as mere accumulation of prudently distributed profits, but as a strategy that can be financed with debt, like any professional-services company. We follow this in our big law section, where we analysed the fee structures of major firms and the special employment relationship. For readers interested in legaltech funding, it is worth cross-reading our 2026 legaltech funding rounds report.