Established in the region for more than 30 years, Allen & Overy surpasses most of its competitors in terms of longevity and experience. Peers view it as one of the firms to beat, with one lawyer remarking: "We view them as our principal competition across all the areas....
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Established in the region for more than 30 years, Allen & Overy surpasses most of its competitors in terms of longevity and experience. Peers view it as one of the firms to beat, with one lawyer remarking: "We view them as our principal competition across all the areas." Locally, the firm remains one of the most active but it has a significant presence throughout the Gulf and uses its Dubai practice as a hub to reach countries where it is yet to establish offices and clients and lawyers have confidence in the firm's ability throughout the Middle East. "They are viewed as one of the firms by clients that you could use on any banking or capital markets deals across the region," explains one lawyer.
Finance specialist Peter Timchur's relocation from the London office expanded the firm's practice but it has also had to accept the resignation of leading lawyer Pervez Akthar, who left to head up the M&A team at Freshfields Dubai in February 2011. While former colleagues said he wanted a change of scenery, rivals were bemused given A&O's stature in the region. Peers feel Akthar's new firm will certainly notice the gain, but Allen & Overy will manage the loss given the depth of quality within the firm's corporate practice. A perfect example is Abu Dhabi partner Khalid Garousha who is deemed the ideal exponent of everything required of a lawyer in the Middle East: "I have a lot of respect for him, he is culturally attuned and very easy to deal with," remarks a practice head at a rival firm. Clients also appreciate the partner, one says: "Very, very good we've used him for about 10 years. Very commercial advice,very effective in having a good understanding of English law and laws in other jurisdictions."
The big question concerns whether Akthar's client Abraj Capital, who he previously worked for, would cease to use A&O. Lawyers were divided, but realistically, although A&O may lose out on the corporate side, one of the largest private equity groups in the region will invariably continue to employ one of the best financial firms in the country. "A&O have a very close and ostensibly good relationship with Abraj. Abraj do spread their work around but that institutional relationship was very much assisted by Pervez. But what I don't think he will be able to take from A&O, because Freshfields simply don't have it, is the finance work," says one finance partner. During the last 12 months the corporate group has advised Abraj on various mandates, including the acquisition of a 49% stake in Network International.
Despite diminishing in numbers after Akthar's defection, the corporate partnership has grown with the promotions of Nicholas Stuart and Seth Jones in May 2011. Jones assisted Andrew Schoorlemmer and Ibrahim Mubaydeen in advising investment house Waha Capital on its acquisition of a 20% stake in Dutch aircraft leasing company, AerCap Holdings, for $380 million in assets and cash. In other private equity work Mubaydeen advised Aabar Investments on the acquisition of shares in Mercedes Grand Prix. Lawyers say Schoorlemmer is technically astute and one client expands, saying: "He's extremely commercial so excellent to have in a negotiation."
Equity capital markets work as been virtually nonexistent but the firm's debt practice head and Islamic finance expert Anzal Mohamed, who has an exemplary reputation within the market, has finalised some substantial mandates. In one he advised Etisalat the UAE telecommunications provider, on much of its capital needs, assisting in the establishment of its $7 billion global conventional and $1 billion global sukuk (Islamic bond) programmes which utilise an innovative structure that allows Etisalat to use minutes of airtime on its mobile network as the asset base for sukuk issues.
In other notable bond issues Mohamed advised the joint lead managers of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company's $750 million offerings, which was the first quasi-sovereign and corporate US dollar denominated bond and largest non-sovereign issue from the country. Another deal saw the practice head advise Waha Aerospace and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi as guarantor in relation to this issuance of $1.5 billion 3.925% bonds due in 2020.
Allen & Overy is recognised globally for its banking and finance expertise and its UAE office is no different. Dividing his time between banking and project finance work, Bimal Desai is consistently singled out by peers as the firm's preeminent figure in this area, with one describing him as "a very good, experienced lawyer". Clients equally value Desai and say his opinion is invaluable: "Second to none in terms of depth of market knowledge, Bimal Desai has effectively designed the UAE legal practice on a huge range of points and is extremely well respected in this market," says one.
On the finance side he advised on the $300 million Islamic structured retail and real estate financing of Emaar Malls for Standard Chartered and acted for the arranging banks on a $430 million financing for Borse Dubai. In notable project work he advised National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank on the $1.1billion financing of Emirates Steel Industries UAE expansion plans.
In the firm's largest deal in the last 12 months, Desai advised Saudi Aramco and Total on financing the $14.2 billion Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical project. The financing for development of this greenfield refining and petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia involved 19 different facilities with seven export credit agencies and two different Islamic facilities and the total debt raised was approximately $8.5 billion.
A multijurisdictional financing that exemplifies the firm's regional reach, saw Ian Ingram-Johnson advise telecom company, Zain, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq on five different facilities, which in total exceeded $3 billion, in the last 12 months.
Post crisis, restructuring has become an important tool in the UAE and the firm had roles in the three headline cases of government related entities, advising the creditors committee on the $14.4 billion Dubai World, $10.4 billion Nakheel and $3 billion Dry Docks World, restructurings. Christian Saunders, who was active for the firm across these deals, receives client's approval and is described as "technically excellent."
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