Portrait of Francisco Couto

Francisco Couto Senior Consultant

Francisco is a member of Oxera’s Finance & Valuation team. He specialises in advising companies and law firms on valuation issues in litigations and international arbitrations, as well as on state aid matters. He has worked on litigation cases before the UK and Spanish courts, as well as commercial and investor-state arbitrations under ICC and ICSID rules. Francisco has worked on cases across a wide range of sectors, including transport, manufacturing, energy, agriculture, payments, capital markets and telecommunications. He is also a lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, teaching the Master’s course Regulation and Antitrust Economics for Business.

Francisco holds an MA in Economics and Finance from the University of Edinburgh, and an MSc in Economics and Finance from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. In both degrees, Francisco worked extensively with large datasets and financial models, developing strong Excel and Stata skills. Before joining Oxera, he was a trainee at the European Central Bank’s Monetary Policy division, focusing on money markets and short-term rates.

Francisco speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Tel: +32 (0) 2 793 07 04

Francisco's specialisms include:

Selected
professional experience

  • Leading the Oxera team in an expert engagement for a South American state in an ICSID arbitration with a foreign investor relating to a telecommunications concession (2025–)

  • Leading the Oxera team in an expert engagement for a global leading hotel operator in an ICC arbitration with a hotel owner relating to a hotel management agreement (2025–)

  • Advised a Central Asian state as a key member of the Oxera team in an expert engagement for an ICSID arbitration regarding a foreign investment in commercial real estate assets and a hotel (2025–)

  • Leading the Oxera team in an expert engagement for a European state in an ICSID arbitration with a high-net-worth individual relating to a large nationalisation (2024–)

  • Provided advice to a major European football club on financial regulation and competition matters (2024), as well as on an arbitration with its domestic league (2024–25)

  • Led the Oxera team in an expert engagement for a Spanish farming cooperative in a litigation against a regional government regarding its failure to grant appropriate licenses for an expansion of the cooperative (2021–25)

Selected
publications

  • Robins, N. and Couto, F. (2023), ‘Familiar Tools in Foreign Settings: Practical Considerations for Complying with the New Foreign Subsidies Regulation’, CPI Antitrust Chronicle, May.

Qualifications

  • CFA Level 3 candidate, having passed Level 2 in November 2022

  • MSc Economics and Finance, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Spain

  • MA Economics and Finance, University of Edinburgh, UK

Latest Insights:  Francisco Couto

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Depiction of Assessing the state of play of women’s football

Assessing the state of play of women’s football

Women’s football has been experiencing fast and sustained growth and is rapidly increasing in popularity around the world, both in terms of participation and viewership. The evidence suggests that this…
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< 1 minute read
Depiction of Assessing the financial regulation of European football clubs

Assessing the financial regulation of European football clubs

The roar of the crowd, the thrill of the game—football is a global phenomenon. With rising TV audiences and lucrative commercial deals, it has become big business. Money has surged…
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23 minute read
Depiction of Caught offside? The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation and European football clubs

Caught offside? The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation and European football clubs

There have already been two well-publicised requests for the Commission to use its ex officio powers under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), to investigate alleged distortive subsidies granted to…
Agenda
16 minute read
Depiction of Laying the tracks for the regulation of foreign subsidies: revisiting the acquisition of Vossloh Locomotives by CRRC

Laying the tracks for the regulation of foreign subsidies: revisiting the acquisition of Vossloh Locomotives by CRRC

The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) becomes applicable this year. To assess its potential impact, we ask: what might have happened had the Regulation been applied to the acquisition of…

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