Sharkawy & Sarhan

Egypt

Address:
Arabella Plaza, Building 2
Gamal Abdel Nasser Axis
Fifth District, New Cairo, Cairo
Egypt

+202 23 22 54 00

+202 23 22 54 01


Key contacts:

Partner - TMT : Ahmed El Sharkawy
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Partner - Banking & Finance: Ahmed Haggag
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Partner - Power & Renewables and M&A: Mohamed Nabil Hazzaa
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Partner - Oil & Gas and Mining: Karim Sarhan
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General Corporate & Commercial and Employment: Lamiaa Youssef
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Infrastructure & Power: Naila Ramsay
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Quick facts:

Lawyers: 33
Languages: English & Arabic


Sharkawy and Sarhan is focused on the timely delivery of high-quality legal advice. We take a solution-driven approach, and we have a deep understanding of the issues for governmental authorities, financiers, and developers. We appreciate the risks in cross-border transactions, as well as the solutions to best mitigate them. Sharkawy & Sarhan have acted on some of the largest and most complex transactions in the Egyptian market. As an independent law firm, we work with leading international law firms, without a presence in Egypt, to represent clients in different sectors. Through our excellent working relationships with leading local players and international law firms, we provide seamlessly an integrated legal service to our clients. This is complemented by the international mindset of our lawyers, many of whom have benefited from training in international firms. For over a decade, our sector-focused teams have been involved in most big-ticket M&A, power, infrastructure, oil & gas, and banking & finance transactions in Egypt, developing focused expertise while maintaining a strong reputation for efficiency and high standards. 

Sharkawy & Sarhan also act as the trusted advisors of the firm’s strategic clients across all corporate, and commercial work. The firm supports its clients on data privacy, cybersecurity, general company law, and corporate procedure, commercial contracts, compliance, and regulatory issues, employment, corporate restructuring, and high-profile disputes.

  • Asset finance
  • Banking
  • Capital markets: Debt
  • Capital markets: Derivatives
  • Capital markets: Equity
  • Competition
  • Financial restructuring
  • Financial services regulatory
  • Islamic finance
  • M&A
  • PPP/PFI
  • Private equity
  • Project development
  • Project finance
  • Trade finance

Mergers & Acquisitions:
Mohamed Nabil Hazzaa
m.hazzaa@sharkawylaw.com

Esraa Abdelmoniem
e.abdelmoniem@sharkawylaw.com 

Recent transactional highlights:

  • Americana Group on the bidding process of selling its 100% stake in Greenland Group to Dairy Distributors for Distribution S.A.E. (a venture between Halawa and French dairy group Lactalis).
  • Advising Attijariwafa Bank on the acquisition of Barclays Egypt
  • Nebras and CGNPC in relation to Edra Global Energy Bhd Egyptian Assets and advising on the acquisition of the Egyptian assets comprising the only three independent power projects in the Egyptian market.
  • Nestlé on the acquisition of Pfizer Nutrition business.

Banking & Finance:
Ahmed Haggag
a.haggag@sharkawylaw.com

Recent transactional highlights:

  • Advising for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development “EBRD”, as lender’s local counsel, in relation to the USD 12 million loan for the development of a new hotel “Al Dau Al Haram for Hotels Operations SAE” in West Cairo, serving the Grand Egyptian Museum and Great Giza Pyramids.
  • Advising Banque Misr on matters of Egypt law in relation to the Revolving Credit agreement and issuing bank agreement concluded with EBRD.
  • Advising for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development “EBRD”, as lender’s local counsel, in relation to the USD 10 million loan to TAQA PV for Solar Energy, the renewable energy arm of TAQA Arabia. The loan will finance the construction of a 6 MW solar photovoltaic plant to supply power to the dairy producer, Dina Farms in one. of Egypt’s first private-to-private renewable energy projects.
  • Advising the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) on the financing of Edita including conducting a limited due diligence on Edita and its subsidiaries in Egypt, reviewing a draft of the loan agreement and the guarantee agreements prepared by IFC, advising on local issues, and issuing an opinion confirming that the transaction documents are valid and enforceable in Egypt.

Infrastructure & Power
Mohamed Nabil Hazzaa
m.hazzaa@sharkawylaw.com

Naila Ramsay
n.ramsay@sharkawylaw.com

Recent transactional highlights:

  • The Ministry of Finance (with IFC), on the PPP Unit the USD472 million Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant PPP Project.
  • IFC (With Clifford Chance) on its loan to support Elif Global Packaging S.A.E’s, in Egypt.
  • PROPARCO on Egyptian law aspects in relation to the settlement of a EUR15 million outstanding loan granted to a company suffering from financial distress.
  • EBRD on a USD30 million loan to Audi Bank to support small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) in Egypt.
  • A major Chinese power corporation on the nuclear regime in Egypt. an extensive report on the legal framework of implementing Nuclear Power Projects on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis.
  • Molinari Rail AG, Winterthur, Switzerland on negotiating a consultancy agreement with the National Authority for Tunnels in relation to a to the provision of certain consulting services relating to train sets for the greater Cairo Metro Line No. 1 (Helwan to New El – Marge).
  • EFG Hermes Holding on drafting and negotiating the loan agreement and perfecting the securities.
  • The World Bank and the Egyptian Government on the New Cairo tram PPP project.
  • Suez Canal Container Terminal S.A.E (subsidiary of Maersk) on its multi-million USD bridge and medium-term financing facility from a syndicate of Egyptian banks.

Oil & Gas and Mineral Resources:
Karim Sarhan
k.sarhan@sharkawylaw.com

Heba Anwar Raslan
h.raslan@sharkawylaw.com

Recent transactional highlights:

  • Advising DEA AG, the company on the concession agreements for the North Alexandria and West Mediterranean deep water gas fields (North Alex & West Med Concessions), as well as assisting with the negotiations with EGPC.
  • Advising DEA in relation to the Gulf of Suez Concession Agreement (production sharing agreement) issued by virtue of Law no. 9 of 2019 with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).
  • Winning a bid by DEA Nile GmbH for East Damanhour block offered in the 2018 International Bid Round of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) for the exploration of natural gas.
  • Advising Shell, BG, Eni, KUFPEC, SDX, Lukoil and other IOCs on a wide range of issues related to Oil & gas concessions in Egypt.
  • Advising TransGlobe Energy Corporation in connection with its application for admission and for listing its entire common share capital to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
  • Between 2016 and 2018, advising Eni on all three transactions concerning the sale of participating stakes to Mubadala (10% valued at USD 934 million), Rosneft (30% valued at USD 1,125 million), and BP (10&, valued at USD 375 million) in the Shorouk Concession, where supergiant gas field Zohr is located. 
  • Advising DEA Deutsche Erodel AG on the Egyptian law aspects of the 7.1 Billion US Dollars sale of its global oil & gas business to L1 Energy.  This transaction was the largest global M&A transaction in 2014.
  • Advising DNB UK in the context of a USD 600,000,000 reserve-based lending facility to be provided by DNB UK and certain other lenders, to Dana Petroleum Ltd in performing an extensive due diligence exercise over the Egyptian operations and producing a due diligence report.
  • Advising HSBC Bank Egypt S.A.E., The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited and HSBC Bank Corporate Trustee (UK) Limited, as local counsel, in connection with a 60 Mil- lion US Dollars Senior Secured Term Loan Facility Agree- ment secured to the Improved Petroleum Recovery Transoil Corp. et al (IPR), which holds various oil & gas concessions in Egypt.

Technology, Media & Telecommunication
Ahmed El Sharkawy
a.sharkawy@sharkawylaw.com

Recent transactional highlights:

  • Advising Dell Technologies Inc. on the sale of its legacy security firm RSA to a consortium of investors led by Symphony Technology Group.
  • Acting for STMicroelectronics, a global leader in electronics and semiconductors serving customers across the spectrum of electronic applications, on the Egyptian law aspects of its acquisition of Canada-based tech developer Riot Micro. Riot Micro is a developer of wireless chips that are meant to build smart objects in the internet of things (IoT).
  • Advising (With Eversheds) a major gulf telecommunication company in relation to its acquisition of a fiber pair in a submarine telecommunication cable owned by a premium Egyptian telecommunication company. This deal is the first of its kind in Egypt.
  • Advising ILA Group, a major investment fund in Bahrain, in an acquisition on one of the leading telecom distributors in Egypt.
  • Advising Altimo on launching a $3.7 billion mandatory tender offer for purchasing an Egyptian listed company (Orascom Telecom Holding) having Global Depository Receipts listed on the LSX.
  • Advising Vodafone on the drafting of template contracts to be used by the different business functions.

  • Banking
  • Consumer goods and services
  • Energy
  • Financial services
  • Food and beverage
  • Healthcare
  • Industrials
  • Insurance
  • Media
  • Mining
  • Natural resources
  • Oil and gas
  • Pharm and life sciences
  • Real estate
  • Tech and telecoms
  • Transport