Kettani Law Firm is consistently considered one of the leaders in the Moroccan market. Peers note that it often appears as opposing counsel on the country’s big ticket deals and also comment that it is a regular when it comes to local counsel appointments by international firms active in the area, among them Linklaters....
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Kettani Law Firm is consistently considered one of the leaders in the Moroccan market. Peers note that it often appears as opposing counsel on the country’s big ticket deals and also comment that it is a regular when it comes to local counsel appointments by international firms active in the area, among them Linklaters. Nadia Kettani is the partner responsible for an active corporate transactional department, which over the past year has seen a string of high profile acquisitions, divestitures and financings.
The firm recently had a good showing in M&A and at the end of 2010 closed a large deal on behalf of France Telecom in its acquisition of a 40% stake in Meditelecom, which was signed for €640 million. In three additional separate M&A mandates the Kettani team helped global pharmaceutical brands GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis sell segments of their interests in Moroccan ventures to local entities Saham Pharma and Sothéma, respectively, and advised Shell on the Moroccan part of its pan-Africa divestiture project. The three latter projects straddled 2010-2011.
Project finance also proved lucrative for the firm, where it won mandates from confidential lenders to two cement plant projects and to the project for the extension of the Jorf Lasfar power plant. Pitching up on the other side of the table the team worked on behalf of the GDF Nareva consortium in relation to the Safi Power Plant and the Tarfaya wind farm projects. All three power projects were current in 2011 while the cement plant financings were closed in the end of 2010.
The third significant source of work came from the hospitality sector, and in one deal the team acted for Risma, the owners of Accor Hotels in Morocco, to secure financing for a number of planned hospitality projects in 2011.
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