Clifford Chance and Garrigues Portugal have advised Haitong Securities on its acquisition of Banco Espirito Santo de Investimento (BESI) for 379 million euros ($467 million), with Linklaters counseling the bank's owner, Novo Banco.

The deal marks a major overseas expansion by Haitong Securities into Europe and other financial centres where the Portuguese bank operates, including Brazil, Mexico and India. 

China’s second-largest brokerage by market value, Haitong Securities is listed both on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

BESI, once Portugal’s biggest lender by market value, was bailed out in August by Portuguese regulators, who engineered a rescue by transferring the bank’s healthy business to the newly created Novo Banco. Back then, BESI was financially stranded by its exposure to its struggling corporate parent, Espirito Santo International.

Hong Kong-based corporate partner Cherry Chan led the Clifford Chance team on the deal, with assistance from partner Virginia Lee in Hong Kong and partner Jean Thio in Shanghai.

“Chinese companies continue to expand globally as they seek to grow their businesses outside their home market, and we expect to see more deals with bigger price tags in 2015,” said Chan in a statement.