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Morocco has suddenly become a focus for the foreign business community and one clear sign of this has been the announcements in July 2011 by Allen & Overy, Norton Rose and Clifford Chance all to launch offices in Casablanca. In the last three years there have also been launches by Jeantet & Associés and Eversheds....

Morocco has suddenly become a focus for the foreign business community and one clear sign of this has been the announcements in July 2011 by Allen & Overy, Norton Rose and Clifford Chance all to launch offices in Casablanca. In the last three years there have also been launches by Jeantet & Associés and Eversheds.

For Norton Rose, the most established international firm in Moroccan deals, it is the fifth office on the continent, but for A&O and Clifford Chance it marks their first. Up until now all three firms have been actively involved in Moroccan deals primarily through their Paris offices.

Lawyers point to a number of attractive potentialities in Morocco. "In 2011 there was a significant increase in infrastructure and project finance with non-residents involved: for example the Casablanca-Tangiers high speed rail line, which is the first high speed rail link in Africa, and we envisage that it will be completed in five years," says one partner. There will also be new sectors opening up in the market says another: "When you have an emerging economy with such a level of growth and GDP banks can't just finance the projects and they are going to have to find new ways of financing."

Firms consistently mention energy, infrastructure and financial services as key growth areas. The country has also been trying to mine its geo-strategic position by developing the Port of Tangiers as a gateway to Africa and the Casablanca financial city as the region's financial centre. "Due to the Arab Spring a number of entities have set up headquarters in Morocco", says a partner, "and the quality of projects is going up, pushing Morocco as a hub for Africa." "There are a number of Moroccan players, banks, insurance companies and others becoming active in the rest of Africa... there is the Casablanca Financial Centre which is looking at the whole country, there are tax advantages," adds another partner.

Looking at the transactions completed in 2010/2011, it is clear that energy is the real golden egg. However, one partner sees increasing activity everywhere: "2011 was more active than 2010 for corporate work, employment, tax, contracts... and day to day activity".

From a client perspective Morocco has its challenges. "It is very time consuming; the regulatory environment is uncertain and there are big uncertainties about procedures... transactions take months," says one investor. According to another "the establishment of our company took much longer than expected, got very plugged up, it's an environment in which everything needs to be documented, you need signatures, validation of signatures... it all takes time".