Principal Consultant Energy & Natural Resources, Principal Consultant Infrastructure & Mobility
Francisco Silva Santos joined VdA in 2025. He is a Senior Consultant in the Energy & Natural Resources and Infrastructure & Mobility practices.
His work focuses primarily on Mozambique, where he has been involved in several transactions.
Law degree from Lusíada University of Lisbon Faculty of Law.
Before joining the firm, from February to November 2025, Francisco worked as Legal Director of Base Capital in Portugal, where he was responsible for supervising the legal operations of the group with more than 500 employees in the automotive, real estate, technology, and food and beverage sectors.
Between January of 2018 and October of 2024, Francisco was Director of Projects and Transactions at TPLA – Taciana Peão Lopes e Advogados Associados, Lda., where he was responsible for advising local and foreign clients in Mozambique in the areas of commercial law, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, energy, and natural resources. He also led the teams responsible for providing legal advice on the financing, installation, and operation of the first photovoltaic power plant and on the sale of the company operating the Rovuma Basin Liquefied Natural Gas project.
From January of 2013 to December of 2017, Francisco founded Adwision, a transaction and investment project advisory firm, providing legal services and assistance in the negotiation and execution of tourism, energy (solar, wind, coal, and gas), oil and gas, mining, infrastructure concessions, and telecommunications, mergers and acquisitions in the tourism, real estate, energy, oil and gas, and mining sectors, restructuring of local and foreign companies, and due diligence of companies, assets, and land titles for such purposes.
From December of 2004 until December of 2012, Francisco was a Senior Associate at Miranda, Correia, Amendoeira & Associados and Of Counsel at Pimenta, Dionísio e Associados, providing legal advice in the areas of commercial, corporate, oil and gas, mining, energy, administrative, and environmental law to clients based or with interests in Portugal and Mozambique. In 2012, he was seconded to the legal department of Anadarko Moçambique Área 1, Lda., where he advised the company in the negotiation of project agreements and the incorporation of the special purpose vehicle for the implementation of the liquefied natural gas project in Afungi, Cabo Delgado.
Admitted to the Portuguese Bar Association.
English.