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

ENS remains a solid capital markets proposition this year, with peers noting the firm's particular strength on the debt side, including derivatives and other structured products.

"ENS is active, but more on the debt side really," comments one partner.

The team, which is led in Cape Town by Roger Rudolph and out of Johannesburg by Sean Lederman, has posted a number of interesting and sizeable deals over the past year, with leading lawyer Clinton van Loggerenberg heavily involved.

A good representative deal for the team involved van Loggerenberg, as he led a team advising HSBC Bank, in its capacity as lead dealer, on an update of a EMTN programme for Standard Bank South Africa. Completing in 2010, this deal was worth around $2 billion.

Fellow leading lawyer Stephen von Schirnding was also active this year on a deal that showcases the team's ability with structured finance. He led a team that advised Sasfin Bank on an issuance of refinancing notes as part of the South African securitisation programme, a deal that completed in 2011 for a figure of almost $700 million.

Von Schirnding also led a team that restructured the Fintech Receivables 2 equipment lease rentals securitisation, a mandate that completed in October 2010 for a value of $278.9 million.

"ENS has got some quality practitioners at a good level, very experienced and so on. They are the competition," comments one peer. "ENS is correctly up there in tier one," confirms another.

Client feedback is consistently good and one financing client lavished particular praise on partner Johan Loubser: "Johan is absolutely outstanding. Technically he is on top of his game. We've used other lawyers in South Africa but he is the best," says one, adding: "We see Johan more as a business partner than our attorney".

Although there is some crossover with the teams they do have separate leaders, with Sean Lederman and Roger Rudolph the joint heads of the banking and finance department and Eric Le Grange heading up the project finance team. Both have also added to their headcount this year, with Deborah Carmichael being hired as a banking and finance partner in June 2010 and Andrew van Niekerk joining as a partner in the project finance team a month later.

Lederman led on one of the highlight deals for the team this year, advising Standard Bank on the $850 million financing for pharmaceutical company Aspen's acquisition of Sigma Pharmaceuticals, as well as arranging a working capital facility for Aspen Pharmacare Holdings in February 2011.

Another interesting deal saw partner Diana Messerschmidt acting for FirstRand Empowerment Trust on the $362.6 million refinancing of a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) transaction. With new BEE coming to something of a low ebb, this refinancing is relatively unique in the market, and completed in May 2010.

The corporate team at ENS has experienced a lot of comings and goings this year, with a large number of associates and partners both leaving and joining. This includes the hires of Philip Geromont in August 2010 and Otsile Matlou in January 2011 as directors to help address the departures of other partners such as Carla Raffinetti, Nonkulenko Mabandla, Peter Tshisevhe, Robert Appelbaum, Matozdi Ratshimbilani, Safiyya Patel and Dhiren Ganasen, who have all left since December 2010. Overall though the net change appears to be fairly minimal and peers are quick to note that the firm remains a top tier proposition in M&A.

"At ENS, [Michael] Katz speaks for himself and the rest are fantastic practitioners," comments one rival on the team.

The team is led from two offices, Doron Joffe being the head in Johannesburg and leading lawyer Koos Pretorius fronting the team in Cape Town. Some partners have remarked that leading lawyer Michael Katz has taken a step back and taken on more managerial duties but the deal list for the team shows him heavily involved, including on one of the biggest deals of the year for ENS.

On this mandate he led a team that advised Sasol as it acquired a significant interest in a Canadian company. A transaction complicated by compliance rules for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, it finally completed in December 2010 for a value of around $7 billion.

The firm was very busy throughout 2010, with a team advising Metropolitan Holdings on an acquisition of 100% of the shares in the Momentum Group. This deal completed for the sizeable amount of $4.6 billion.

A team led by leading lawyer Stephen Lewis and Matthew Morrison was also active on one of the most high profile deals of the year, advising Massmart on Walmart's acquisition of 51 out of 100 shares in the former, giving it a majority stake. This deal, which also closed in 2010, represented a value of $2.3 billion.

A large and diverse team, ENS is a competition practice that is going places and which is looking toward the top tier, taking on over half a dozen new lawyers in the past 12 months.

"I am happy with ENS. Lee Mendelsohn is their lead and she is strong. The team has good lawyers," comments one partner and another adds: "Edward Nathan is always a consistent player."

Clients also are consistently keen on the service they receive, with only one minor blemish regarding cost. "They are very good from a technical point of view," says one client, referencing the good, while another states: "Their fees are excessive, and a little over-the-top." Another client also alluded to this: "I tell them often that I think it is too much and then they reduce it. Their opening fee level is too high."

The team itself has a core of leading lawyers, including Justin Balkin, Mark Garden, Natalia Lopes and department head Mendelsohn, all of whom have been very active on landmark deals this year.

Garden has been advising Caterpillar on merger control matters for its $8.6 billion acquisition of Bucyrus International. He also teamed up with Balkin to advise Massmart, the target of Walmart, the US giant which was looking to acquire a 51% stake in the wholesale and retail chain. The merger was cleared, with conditions, in May 2011.

Mendelsohn advised Metropolitan Holdings on issues arising from its $4.6 billion merger with Momentum, and acted for Tiger Brands alongside Balkin in defending a class-action started by consumers and distributors with regard to alleged anti-competitive practices in the bread industry.

The firm also acted for Massmart, Tiger Brands, Nedbank and Liberty Group in connection with the Supermarket Investigation by the Competition Commission. For this a large team was required, with all four leading lawyers acting for the clients.