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doing business in

africa



 

doing business in south africa(click to view pdf)

Doing business in Africa provides unique challenges and endless opportunities. This is especially true now, in the wake of the first-world's economic crisis. Business in Africa, however, requires a different skill-set as transactions often involve parties in multiple countries that typically have varying, and sometimes conflicting legal, regulatory and taxation requirements. Businesses therefore need legal counsel with geographical capability as well as substantive local expertise. Advice developed through a comprehensive knowledge, background and experience of Africa is critical to the long term success of any business proposition.

With South Africa often being a preferred point of entry into the rest of the African continent, ENS's substantive cross-border expertise and project management skills are pro-actively augmented by know-how relating to and local skills within the specific countries involved. This formidable combination makes ENS the firm of choice for law, tax, forensic and IP advice in Africa.

 




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awards


 

ENS was awarded Middle East & African Law Firm of the Year at the prestigious British Legal Awards 2010

ENS was voted Legal Adviser of the Year for Sub Saharan Africa at the FT Group and Mergermarket M&A Awards 2010 in London

ENS was voted Best Law Firm in South Africa by the jury at the International Legal Awards (ILA) in Paris, winning the Golden Award for 2010. ENS has won this prestigious award for the past 3 years in a row.

ENS ranked first for Deal Flow and second for Deal Value in the Dealmakers Q3 M&A League Tables, and first for both Transaction Flow and Transaction Value in the Corporate Finance category. ENS ranked 1st in M&A by Deal Value and 1st in Corporate Finance by Deal Flow and was the only firm ranked in the top three places across every category in the Dealmakers Annual Awards 2009

ENS ranked 1st by Deal Value in South Africa in the Mergermarket 2010 Annual M&A League Tables

ENS was voted the Most Trusted Law Firm and Client Care Law Firm of the year, as well as Law Firm of the Year in Africa in the categories of Insolvency, Trademarks, Corporate Governance, Banking, Financial Advisory, Private Equity, Offshore, Commercial Litigation, Re-Insurance, Private Funds and M&A Advisory in the Acquisition Finance (ACQ) Global Awards 2010

ENS is rated and endorsed as a Leading Law Firm in South Africa by Chambers and Partners Global Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers 2010, IFLR1000 2010, PLC Which Lawyer? 2010, Legal 500 2010 and Best Lawyers International 2009

ENS is top-listed in South Africa with 45 leading lawyers by Best Lawyers SA 2010

ENS is ranked as the Best Employer amongst legal firms in South Africa, and 2nd Best Employer over all South African companies across all business sectors and across all sizes by CRF Best Employers 2009/10

ENS is ranked as a Top Empowered Company by Impumelelo 2010

ENS was ranked as the Top Firm in the Legal Services sector of South African Companies by Top 500 2010 South Africa's Best Companies

ENS won Cross-Border Advisory Firm of the Year in South Africa in the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2010

ENS practitioners are listed as Legal Experts by Legal Experts Europe, Middle East & Africa 2010

ENS was voted South African Law Firm of the Year in the InterContinental Finance Global Awards 2010

ENS was recognised as a leading law firm in South Africa by Finance Magazine Monthly in their 2010 Review of the top international lawyers and law firms from South Africa and those specialists of considerable repute in a number of specialist areas of law

ENS ranked 1st by Deal Flow in South Africa in the Ernst & Young M&A Activity Review 2009

ENS was voted as the Law Firm of the Year South Africa in the PLC Which Lawyer? Law Firm Awards 2009

ENS won Global M&A Law Firm of the Year 2009 at the M&A Advisor Awards in New York

 

 




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awarded to ENS

deals cases


 

Advising Standard Finance (Isle of Man) in respect of the acquisition finance to be advanced by the Standard Bank of South Africa and Standard Finance (Isle of Man) Limited to Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited and certain of its subsidiaries, for the purpose of acquiring the pharmaceutical business related assets of Sigma Pharmaceuticals Limited, valued at AU$650 million

Representing Comcast and Universal in respect of their merger and competition law issues relating thereto, valued at US$30 billion

Advising Sasol on the SA regulatory and legislative requirements (disclosure obligations in South Africa and compliance with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange requirements) in respect of their acquisition of a major interest in a Canadian company, valued at US$7 billion

Advising Metropolitan Holdings in respect of their R33.4 billion merger with Momentum and subsequent unbundling by FirstRand of their shares in Metropolitan, as well as the procurement of associated regulatory approval in the 21 African countries in which Momentum operates including, amongst others, approval in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho from the Registrar of Long-term Insurance, the Registrar of Short-term Insurance, the Registrar of Banks, the Registrar of Pension Funds, the South African Reserve Bank and the Competition Tribunal in Namibia

Advising Massmart on the commercial and competition-related aspects relating to their acquisition by Wal-Mart, valued at R17 billion

Advising the National Treasury of the Republic of South Africa and the underwriters, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank and Nedbank on the issue of US$2 billion, the largest ever dollar-denominated bond in South Africa

Advising Morgan Stanley in respect of the proposed acquisition by NTT of Didata, valued at R20 billion

Advising Hoskin Consolidated Investment Holding Company Limited (HCI) and Gold Reef in respect of Gold Reef's acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Tsogo (a subsidiary of HCI) from the shareholders of Tsogo, valued at R20 billion

Providing tax and commercial advice to Brimstone and Life Healthcare Group Holdings in respect of the unwinding of the joint investment structure into LifeHealthcare Limited, as part of the structuring of the company’s listing in South Africa, valued at US$2 billion

Advising the Board of Directors of South African Airways (Pty) Ltd, the state-owned national airline, in relation to a substantial, high profile forensic investigation conducted by KPMG over a period of nearly a year, which included negotiating the exit of the CEO, engaging with the responsible minister in the national cabinet in connection with the investigation, analysing various large (multi billion rand) procurement processes and irregularities relating thereto, interviewing key witnesses, dealing with disciplinary proceedings against employees responsible for misconduct indentified in the investigation and formulating substantial civil claims against former employees

Advising the Ministry of Public Works, Namibia on an International Commercial Court arbitration, valued at €18 million

Advising Gold Reef City Theme Park (Pty) Limited on one of the largest defamation actions in South Africa, a claim for R46 million involving the media defense to defamation. The matter ran before the South Gauteng High Court and involves important constitutional issues surrounding defamation

Advising the South African National Government on the international marine conventions and domestic laws relating to marine pollution control and emergency response programmes

Advising on the acquisition by a Helios led consortium of all of the shares in INM Outdoor, the largest outdoor advertising company in Africa, from Independent Outdoor Media South Africa (Pty) Ltd, one of the largest disclosed private equity deals in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2009, valued at R1.1 billion. INM Outdoor has operations in SA and in 13 African countries.

Advising Absa Capital, Barclays Capital, Citi Bank, Standard Bank, IDC, Calyon and Credit Suisse (the lenders) on the ECA backed financing of a potash mine in Belo Russia, valued at US$290 million

Advising the Development Bank of South Africa on PPP Project Financing of a Public Hospital in Lesotho to the value of R900 million

Advising PetroSA on the development and Financing of a greenfields crude oil refinery - preliminary stages, including FEED, valued at US$10 billion

Advising BNP Paribas (Coface Lenders) on the funding of the Alstom Turbines, valued at €562 million

Advising KFW IPEX on the funding of Kusile Turbines, valued at €705 million

Advising the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) on term loan facility for financing Eskom Holdings' development of a 100MW wind farm

Advising The GEO Group in relation to its tenders to the Department of Correctional Services for the purposes of undertaking the design, construction, operation, maintenance and financing of 4 separate prisons

Advising Absa and Barclays Bank in respect of the employment law related issues relating to their merger

Advising Gold Fields Limited in respect of assessing the legality of water use at three of its mines and preparing applications for water use licenses

Advising Transnet (Transnet Freight Rail) in relation to the negotiation of coal transportation agreements for the transportation of coal to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, as well as in relation to the rail transportation and export of manganese

Assisting the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund in respect of their investment in a company engaged in the establishment of an undersea telecommunications cable linking Europe to the West Coast of Africa, valued at US$240 million

Managing the intellectual property portfolio on behalf of various multi-national and local organizations and companies including the Hilton Corporation, Blue Label Telecoms Limited, Investec Group Limited and African National Congress amongst others

Advising Absa Bank on the $800 million financing of the Bujagali hydroelectric power project in Uganda

Advising the South African National Treasury, Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank plc with regards to the issue of the South African Government’s Eurobond issue to the value of €750 million

Advising Eskom on the R60 billion hybrid funding of its capital expansion project

Advising Sasol in regard to its BEE transaction in terms of which a broad-based BEE consortium comprising the historically disadvantaged segment of the SA public, selected BEE groups, employees of Sasol and the Sasol Foundation acquired, collectively, approximately 10% of the issued share capital of Sasol for approx R25.9 billion, which made it the single largest broad-based BEE ownership transaction in South Africa to date

Advising on the South African leg of the global acquisition by Royal Bank of Scotland of ABN Amro - the global transaction was valued at approx. £12 billion

Advising the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) on their 7.5 billion shilling investment in Kenya's fourth mobile operator, Essar Telecom

Advising Barclays Capital, JP Morgan and Standard Bank (the underwriters) on the South African legal aspects of the $1,5 billion global bond issued by the South African Government, the largest dollar denominated bond issue to date, which priced well inside the original price guidance and was initially seven times over-subscribed

Acting as joint South African legal advisers to British American Tobacco in regard to its listing on the JSE at an initial market capitalisation of approx. R8.8 billion

Acting as legal advisers to the South African Government in respect of the disposal by Telkom of its remaining stake in Vodacom to Vodafone - the two inter-conditional transactions announced by the parties to the deals were valued at approx. R22.5 billion

Advising PetroSA as lead counsel in a consortium of local and international firms regarding the establishment of its proposed oil refinery at Coega in the Eastern Cape, valued at $9 - $11 billion

Representing Dubai World in a number of its hotel/ leisure and property acquisitions in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa, including development opportunities

Advising Lexshell 44 General Trading (Pty) Ltd on the funding of its acquisition of the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town for a total acquisition price of R7.5 billion

Representing the Road Accident Fund (RAF) in approximately 450 current litigious matters, and having represented the RAF and its predecessors in title over the past thirty years, in claims against it for compensation by victims of road accidents, which involve issues of liability on both merits (the cause of the accident and whose fault it was) and the quantum of damages

 



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