IFLR 1000
The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms

Webber Wentzel is an unimpeachable top tier firm. Although viewed as especially good in derivatives and securitisations the firm's real standout work this year has come from bond issues.

The team is led by Karen Couzyn, a leading lawyer and well respected figure. She led the team that advised Citigroup Global Markets and BNP Paribas in their role as joint bookrunners on the $641 million senior unsecured guaranteed convertible bond issue by Steinhoff International Holdings. The notes were listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in March 2011.

Elsewhere, Couzyn advised Brandcorp, a handbag and luggage company, in its first high-yield bond issue. The $110 million high-yield notes were listed on the JSE in September 2010 and represented the biggest listed high-yield bond offering hitherto.

In another interesting deal, which demonstrates how firms are looking to go cross border, a team led by partner Jason van der Poel advised Standard Chartered Bank Uganda on a $14.9 million tier two capital floating and fixed rate note programme in Uganda completed in December 2010.

The team's largest mandate was for MTN Group and MTN International, which Olga Meshoe and Lindi Marais advised as issuers on the update of its DMTN programme and the issue of a tranche of senior unsecured fixed rate notes and of senior unsecured fixed rate notes. The total value of the programme overall was close to $1.4 billion and the deal closed in June 2010.

Webber Wentzel has historically possessed a strong finance capability and this has continued into this year. The team is headed up by leading lawyers Johan de Lange and Brigette Baillie, with the latter assuming much of the responsibility for the projects team.

In banking, the firm is traditionally strong on the borrower side, though the deal flow over the past 12 months shows significant activity on both sides of the table, bumping the firm up to top tier status this year.

On a varied deal list a standout transaction involved a team helmed by de Lange, as Webber Wentzel teamed up with Allen & Overy to advise mandated lead arrangers Barclays Capital, alongside others, on a sizeable syndicated facility extended to AngloGold Ashanti. This completed during the course of 2010 for a figure of around $1 billion.

The same company was involved in a similar transaction too, as AngloGold Ashanti secured a revolving credit facility from Webber’s client Rand Merchant Bank. Johan de Lange once more was active here, with this deal being worth $186 million.

When looking specifically at the projects side, the firm has a good reputation for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in particular, a fast-developing area in South Africa. Leading lawyer Brigette Baillie brings much of this expertise, but possesses a deep team around her, and market feedback indicates that Webber Wentzel should retain top tier billing into next year.

A good representative deal was led on by Baillie, assisted by Karel Potgieter and Fola Denloye, as the team advised Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa, Sanlam, Nedbank and a clutch of individual investors with regard to the financing for the BeitBrdige Border Post, a concession in Zimbabwe. Working opposite the Standard Bank of South Africa, this export credit agency financing was slated to complete in May 2011 for a figure of $90 million.

In recruitment terms it has been a steady year overall for the teams, though the firm did lose partner Junaid Banhoobhai, who took up a position at Bowman Gilfillan, a move that doesn’t appear to have impacted on the firm’s work too much.

"If I had to recommend work on to another firm it would be to Webber Wentzel, definitely. We consider them our top competitor," says one peer. It is a firm that has a particular cross-border ability through its burgeoning Africa practice, and maintains its tier one position with ease this year.

Like many of its competitors, Webber Wentzel has moved to augment its team with four new hires: Marita Van Der Walt, Sarah Adcock, Robert Appelbaum and Safiya Patel were all taken on as partners in 2010/2011.

Undoubtedly the standout deal for the team is its ongoing work for Wal-Mart on its high profile and politically resonant offer to acquire a majority stake in Massmart Holdings, an entity listed on the JSE, for $4.4 billion. Christo Els was heading a large and experienced team on the ongoing deal. Another big transaction for the team was representing Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, the largest telecommunications provider in Asia, on its $3.4 billion acquisition of the entirety of Dimension Data Holdings' issued share capital. One other extremely interesting mandate for the firm is advising Kagiso Trust Investments on its proposed merger with Tiso. The deal is a landmark BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) transaction as it will merge the largest, most visible and most successful Black financial institution into a new unit which will be owned by the shareholders of the two erstwhile companies.

Webber Wentzel's competition practice has had a rocky couple of years, with a number of comings and goings. This had led to divided opinion on whether the firm remains a top tier proposition, and it hangs on this year due to its impressive deal list and some backing from the market.

"I haven't come across Webber Wentzel in significant matters. They are not involved in cartel matters anyway," comments one partner, while another says: "I don't think Webber Wentzel really regained its top spot after Norton leaving."

Conversely, other peers feel that the opposite is actually true, and that the firm has dealt with the disruption well: "Webber do a lot of this activity and have clawed back some of what they lost when people left for Nortons."

"With Webber Wentzel it is still early days. They have got Lesley Morphet but she is more a merger person not prohibited practices so they need to consolidate. They'll get there though," observes another partner.

Another partner that is well respected is leading lawyer Desmond Rudman, who has been very active across a range of deals and was described by one partner as "very solid." He led the team advising Walmart on its proposed acquisition of Massmart, taking a 51% interest in the company. A merger hearing in May 2011 finally approved the extremely high profile transaction, with conditions, for a value of $2.2 billion.

Rudman also represented Unilever as it looked to acquire Sara Lee's bodycare business, a global transaction worth $1.8 billion and which gained approval in November 2010.

Leading lawyer Martin Versfeld also won an important decision this year on behalf of his client, British Airways/Comair, when the Competition Appeal Court dismissed South African Airways' appeal against BA/Comair relating to an abuse of dominance allegation in April 2011 with costs.