Competitors' principal grievance with Allen & Overy is that lawyers from the Dubai office regularly lead on transactions, with several peers claiming the firm has secured its ranking by virtue of their efforts. Although the two practices collaborate especially on projects, from a client's perspective this regional network is a virtue....
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Competitors' principal grievance with Allen & Overy is that lawyers from the Dubai office regularly lead on transactions, with several peers claiming the firm has secured its ranking by virtue of their efforts. Although the two practices collaborate especially on projects, from a client's perspective this regional network is a virtue.
The Riyadh offering also has plenty of excellent credentials of its own, namely in the form of its partners. The US and Saudi qualified, Zeyad Khoshaim, is a clear client favourite, who is valued for his expertise and solid grounding in the capital markets arena: "He is very knowledgeable about the CMA (Capital Markets Association). He has very good client management skills."
Clients' perspective of the firm affirms its ranking: "Overall we have very positive feedback on the firm. The team showed, at the same time, professionalism and flexibility," says one. While another remarks: "They accommodated our requests and they hear any concerns and focus on areas we want them to."
In the capital markets sector, the firm's equity work is pending and confidential but clients affirm the practice is active on several IPOs and say the firm is extremely capable in this capacity. "They know about the recent spoken and unspoken rules about the CMA when it comes to legal conditions for disclosure. In the IPO market we are going in to a very volatile market and the CMA is looking more and more at restrictions in the due diligence so this is very important," explains one. Lawyers agree: "They've grown in that area 100% and they are doing vast amounts of work," says one.
On the debt side the firm has been advising Barclays, UBS, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, SAIB, Lazard, and JPMorgan on a variety of regulatory issues, including compliance with authorised regulations.
The firm's strongest practice, banking and finance, has been its most active. A team acted on behalf of the lead arrangers: Samba Financial Group, The Saudi British Bank, The National Commercial Bank and Banque Saudi Fransi, in relation to the SR5 billion ($1.3 billion) 15-year murabaha (deferred sale) financing facility for Saudi Electricity Company. In an identical capacity, for HSBC, the firm advised a $435 million SACE-backed facility for Saudi Basic Industries Corporation's Hadeed Steel Plant and, Riyad Bank and Banque Saudi Fransi on the SR2.1 billion multi-tranche Islamic financing for Arcelor Mittal Tubular Products Jubail Company.
The firm also secured a role on the prize project finance deal in the region which, since closing, has received several accolades. Dubai partner Bimal Desai led the deal advising Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP), a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Total, on the $14.2 billion Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical Project for the development of a greenfield refining and petrochemical plant. The financing involved 19 different facilities with seven export credit agencies and two different Islamic facilities and the total debt raised was approximately $8.5 billion
The corporate practice has also been active for SATORP providing advice on all its corporate and contract work, including structuring and negotiating various multimillion dollar long-term off take arrangements and construction claims.
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