"Number one undoubtedly," says a peer. The firm has a complete dominance in all fields of corporate finance, handling by far the majority of large transactions....
[more]
"Number one undoubtedly," says a peer. The firm has a complete dominance in all fields of corporate finance, handling by far the majority of large transactions. "It is the 800 pound Godzilla in town, even now we only peck at them, all of us only peck at them," says a competitor.
Kojo Bentsi-Enchill is often referred to as the leading Ghanaian lawyer in the field, while Seth Asante is not far behind. Clients trust the firm: "very professional, very knowledgeable, we had a lot of confidence working with them, they had obviously done all of it before," says one. "We were faced with challenges from the regulator, they went to all the negotiations with us... they were very active and we were highly satisfied," says a client, another saying: "they are quite close to banks, [Asante] is popular in Accra, always available for ad hoc queries, relatively quick to provide responses, very useful over the past two years - Kojo is always in emails and jumps in when necessary". Other clients describe the firm as "insightful", "responsive", "speedy", "helpful" and "on the point".
In highlight capital markets deals, the firm worked with Cleary Gottlieb on a $400 million senior secured notes issuance advising the issuer, Hogan Lovells advising the issuer on the Ghana International Bank £50 million rights issue, and assisted Stanbic Bank on $75 million MTN programme; one of the very few pure Ghana programmes.
In May 2011 it also advised Kosmos on a $600 million IPO on the Nyse and has since been advising on a secondary listing on the Ghana Stock Exchange. In mid-2011 it was also advising Guinness Ghana Breweries on a $46 million rights issue.
The firm has also recently established a focussed Financial Institutions and Capital Market Practice Group under Asante, which has been advising the Ghana Stock Exchange on its proposed demutualisation.
On the banking side, the firm advised Linklaters for ICBC's $1.8 billion financing of the Ghana Eastern Corridor project and a $990 million financing for the Ghana Railway Construction and Modernisation Project. The team worked with Herbert Smith to advise China Development Bank on a $3 billion loan to Ghanaian government and directly advised Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank on a $1.5 billion loan to the Ghana Cocoa board.
Rosa Kudoadzi and Asante led on the major M&A deals, which included advising Unilever Ghana on a total business review, which included a number of sales, including the sale of listed company Benso Oil Palm Plantation. The firm also acted for Adcock Ingram Holdings on the takeover of Ayrton Drug Manufacturing, SAB Miller on the delisting of its Accra Breweries and for Bank of Africa on its $23 million acquisition of Amalgamated Bank.
In projects, the firm worked with Slaughter and May to advise Kosmos Energy on an $880 million refinancing of existing costs. It advised Zakhem Construction, Cascade Development Company and GCC Resorts on a $10 million loan for the Kempinski project financing (the development of an old racecourse into residential complex) and advised on a transfer financing for over 370 communication towers from Millicom to Helios.
[hide]