Linklaters has advised State Grid International Development of China (SGID) on its €387.15 million ($506.5 million) takeover of a quarter of Portugal’s Redes Energéticas Nacionais’ (REN) shares. This is the first Chinese acquisition of a European national power grid.

According to the agreement made by the State Grid Europe Limited (SGEL), a wholly-owned SGID subsidiary, and Participacoes Publicas SGPS SA, SGID purchased REN’s 133,500,000 class B shares representing a 25 percent stake in the share capital at a price of € 2.90 per share, Reuters reported.

This deal was part of the second phase of REN's government-approved privatisation. The privatisation was one of the measures undertaken as part of the financial assistance programme agreed upon by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. REN owns and operates high-voltage power and high-pressure gas transmission networks and is also the concessionaire of a liquefied natural gas terminal and gas storage facilities in crisis-hit Portugal.

Linklaters dispatched partners Thomas Ng from Beijing and Jorge Bleck from Lisbon to represent SGID, a fully owned subsidiary of State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC). The state-owned SGCC is the world’s largest electricity and utilities company, ranking 7th on the Fortune 500 in 2011.

“We are very pleased to have advised SGID on its first acquisition in the European Union, a transaction that is very important both for our client as well as the Portuguese government,” said Ng in a statement.