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GC Powerlist > GC Powerlist: Africa Teams
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GC POWERLIST: AFRICA TEAMS
For 30 years, The Legal 500 has been analysing the capabilities of law firms across the world. The GC Powerlist is the latest publication from The Legal 500, turning its attention to the in-house function, and recognising those corporate counsel who are driving the legal business forward. The latest edition is the GC Powerlist: Africa Teams, which identifies an array of the most influential and innovative in-house teams working in the region...read more
We have canvassed opinions from law firm partners and in-house counsel across Africa, to identify corporate counsel that have been instrumental in changing or forming opinions within their company or industry; developing brilliant technical solutions to complex issues; creating innovative structures to ensure that the in-house function is driving the business forward; or providing a business working model that other corporate counsel should follow. Our team of experienced researchers assessed the nominations, speaking both to general counsel and nominating lawyers to finalise each list. The GC Powerlist: Africa Teams features not just information on why that individual has made the list, but also comment from those in-house lawyers about how they have helped shape innovation in the legal industry.
If you have feedback on the GC Powerlist: Africa Teams, or wish to nominate other in-house individuals (either in Africa or global), please do get in touch at corporatecounsel@legal500.com.
We hope that this listing will stimulate debate around the role of the in-house lawyer and help corporate counsel with possible improvements and efficiencies in running their departments.
David Burgess
Publishing Director
(listed in alphabetical order; click on an individual to view an expanded biography)
AFGRI Group is an investment holding company that operates in the food, agriculture and financial services industry, with an interest in companies providing sustainable agriculture, food security and financial management. Based in South Africa, AFGRI operates in 11 African countries and Western Australia with a long history in the grain value chain industry. AFGRI invests in sustainable farming techniques, grain value, storage and post-harvest solutions, financial products for farmers, industrial foods processing, commodity marketing and collateral management. The in-house legal team works across all 11 jurisdictions. Led by Pieter Badenhorst, group legal director and general counsel, it is well known in the industry for its diligent management and legal acumen in pursuit of partnerships and new investments. Each legal counsel in the team is dedicated to specific business units: Robyn van Heerden is in charge of the foods business (Philafrica Foods) and is assisted by Berenice van den Berg; Botha Ernst is in charge of the agricultural business (AFGRI Operations); and Janneke Wessels is in charge of the financial services and shared services business units (GroCapital Advisory Services and AFGRI Management Services.) Each legal counsel has a dual reporting line to the head of the business unit and to the general counsel and is responsible for the corporate governance, ethics and IP for each business unit including attending relevant board meetings. In the last year the team worked on a number of interesting transactions including a R1bn capital raise for Philafrica Foods, which involved the department drafting the circular to shareholders, convertible loan agreements, subscription agreements, shareholders agreement and resolutions completely in-house. It also managed an extensive due diligence process by the shareholders. Badenhorst highlights that, 'it was the first time that a capital raise of this nature was done by the Team. The shareholders entrusted the team with the drafting of the agreements and with that comes a great responsibility. Negotiating with various shareholders, in different jurisdictions, with diverse governance requirements and approval processes, proved particularly challenging'. Similarly the team worked on R3.5bn in M&A transactions and resolved an urgent dilemma potentially costing the company millions in production costs by fending off potential power cuts resulting from a dispute between a power company and local councils. Additionally the legal team developed a joint development agreement platform to assist small businesses in the agricultural industry, a local industry first, and required significant ingenuity and study of international precedent.
Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) was founded in 2007 with a capital equity base of US$1bn to facilitate private sector led infrastructure investment in Africa. With US$4.2bn in capital, the corporation has been achieving this aim through diligent investing across Africa enabling growth through economic and public health crisis, conflict and environmental degradation. The AFC is committed to improving infrastructure investment across Africa and driving sustainable growth and has invested over US$4bn in projects across 28 countries on the continent. The in-house legal team is led by Nana Eshun, director and acting general counsel, and consists of highly talented financial lawyers who are skilled and passionate at aiding the development of the African economy. The team is responsible for legal matters pertaining to financial arrangements as well as corporate governance, employment and infrastructure financing across Africa. In the last year, AFC has signed a facility agreement with China Export Import Bank and Africa Finance Corporation, and announced the completion of the Bel Air Mine in Guinea. This bauxite mine is one of the largest investments in the country since the Ebola crisis.
BancABC is part of the larger African Banking Corporation group which has been offering commercial and private banking to Southern Africa in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe since 1957, and is a leading banking institution in the region. The group is owned by investment holding company Atlas Mara, a company with a large presence in Sub-Saharan African banking which allows the legal team to draw from a wide range of financial experience to assist it in tailoring its advice. In Zimbabwe, the in-house legal department for BancABC is led by Mirirai Apolonia Washaya, head of legal and company secretary, and boasts an impressive legacy of success at the bank. The team expertly manages the company's compliance procedures as well as all contractual and commercial matters relating to the bank's services in Zimbabwe.
With a route network focused on key destinations in Botswana and South Africa, Air Botswana has carved out a competitive niche in the African airline market flying out of its principal base at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport. It has been undertaking a modernisation programme which has seen it place orders for further regional jets to add to its fleet, including ATR-72 turboprop and Embraer E-170 jet models which will allow it to keep pace with competitor's aircraft. Sealing these deals, and dealing with regulatory challenges inherent in expanding the company's route network have been major sources of workload for the company's legal team.
Deputy head of legal for South Africa Fiona Edmundson describes the Anglo American Group Legal South Africa team as 'an ambitious and diverse department that continuously strives to collaborate and innovate with all stakeholders to deliver value and achieve the commercial and strategic objectives of the business'. Indeed, its successes over the past two years have been many and varied. 'Members of the group legal South Africa team led, and were instrumental in, the recent landmark settlement of the silicosis and tuberculosis class action litigation in the gold mining industry', Edmundson explains. 'The settlement will result in the creation of a settlement trust tasked with managing the medical assessments of qualifying claimants, and the disbursement of compensation to such persons in a responsible manner. The team also led the legal work streams on a number of key strategic disposals for the Group. In March 2018 Anglo American successfully concluded the sale of its Eskom-tied domestic thermal coal mines to Seriti Resources Proprietary, while in August 2018 Anglo American successfully concluded the sale, by its 73%-held subsidiary Anglo American Inyosi Coal (Proprietary), of the New Largo thermal coal project and Old New Largo closed colliery in South Africa to New Largo Coal Proprietary'. As part of a major efficiency-improving measure, the team has undertaken a comprehensive restructuring in the way legal services are delivered to support the company-wide strategy implemented in 2016: 'Alternative billing practices, fee arrangements and use of legal process outsourcers (LPOs) to improve efficiency, predictability and cost-effectiveness are the norm within Anglo American group legal'. The arrival of new group general counsel Richard Price is also hailed as a major development for the team: 'One of Richard's main objectives for the team from early on was to transition to a strategic, value-adding partner to the business rather than simply a provider of legal services. In order to achieve this goal, group legal South Africa continues to spend considerable time and effort developing processes and identifying external resources to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its operating model. This free ups more capacity for team members to focus on value-adding, material and strategic matters'.
AngloGold Ashanti was established in South Africa in May 1998, when the gold and uranium mining interests of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa were consolidated. Today, the South African operating units account for roughly 13% of AngloGold Ashanti's total annual production which means its in-house legal team's role of ensuring operations run smoothly from a legal standpoint is a crucial one within the wider organisation. Dealing with a number of large company projects, AngloGold Ashanti's legal team in South Africa is required to ensure legal and regulatory factors are considered at every step of the way. The department is led by the prominent executive vice president for group legal, commercial and governance Ria Sanz, who has a demonstrated history of working in the mining and metals industry. She has overseen the legal team's work in 2018 on the sale of the company's Vaal River assets which includes the Kopanang and Moab Khotsong mines as well as AngloGold Ashanti's entire interest in the Nuclear Fuels Corporation of South Africa and the Margaret Water Company.
AngloGold Ashanti has 14 mines and three projects in ten countries. In Ghana, the legal department is led by head of legal services and company secretary Juliet Ofeibea Manteaw-Kutin, who helps develop the company's mining and engineering projects in Ghana. An example is the October 2018 finalisation of a five year underground and mining contract at the Obuasi re-development project with Underground Mining Alliance (UMA), a joint venture between African Underground Mining Services (AUMS) and Accra-based Rocksure International, a wholly-owned Ghanaian mining contractor. The agreement is valued at US$375m over five years and will help mechanise underground mining expertise within Ghana's local mining and engineering sector, given that Rocksure will work closely with Australia's AUMS. The legal department encourages the creation of the joint ventures, giving AngloGold Ashanti the chance to demonstrate its commitment to increasing meaningful participation in the redevelopment of the Obuasi orebody, which has 5.8Moz of ore Reserves and 34Moz in Mineral Resource, and will have an initial mine life of approximately 20 years.
A successor of Nigeria Airways, whose facilities it took over three years after that company's liquidation in 2006, Arik Air has grown slowly but steadily since then. It now operates an up-to-date fleet of narrow-body and regional jets constituting the largest roster of aircraft in West Africa. Thanks in large part to its well-regarded legal department, it has major orders on the book that will drastically change the company's offering to customers and give it a much greater range of strategic possibilities. As well as new Boeing 737 MAX jets that will keep its short-haul operations up to date, it also has a major order on the books for wide body Boeing 787-9 aircraft which will allow it to provide a very competitive long-haul package for customers, also providing scope for further growth in the future.
Founded in Durban, Aspen Pharmacare is a major international pharmaceutical company with a 160-year heritage in South Africa, and has been listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for 20 years. Heading the company's legal team in the dual role of group legal officer and group compliance officer is Kurt Drieselmann. The team he leads is tasked with handling all legal aspects concerning the international business with a focus on commercial transactions, regulations and corporate matters across the region and beyond. Amongst their recent achievements, the in-house legal team worked on the opening of a new R1bn high containment facility in Port-Elizabeth. In 2017 they gained industry recognition for helping the company be cleared of alleged anti-competitive behaviour by the Democratic Alliance and also for working on a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Federation.
AXA Mansard is the Nigerian subsidiary of the large multinational insurance giant AXA Insurance, and as a combination with the National Insurance Commission of Nigeria (NAICOM) has been operating in Nigeria since 1989. The company's extremely diverse range of services provides ample capacity for its legal team to showcase its abilities; the company offers life and non-life insurance products for individuals and corporations in Nigeria as well as investment and asset management services, health management services and pension funds through subsidiary companies AXA Mansard Investments, AXA Mansard Health and AXA Mansard Pensions. Omowunmi Mabel Coker Adewusi, general counsel, head of legal and human resources, leads the legal department which provides expert guidance to the firm in all matters including corporate governance, regulatory compliance, employment matters as well as company secretarial and commercial work. The team is recognised by a nominator for its expertise in 'handling various complex legal transactions in Nigeria'.
Barclays Bank Moçambique provides personal and business banking services for corporate customers and individuals in Mozambique. Founded in the country in 1977, it is based in Maputo with branches across the rest of the nation. Hernane Estanque joined the bank in February 2016 in the capacity of senior legal counsel, but since December 2017 has served as the head of the legal department where he manages the legal department in consulting the corporate and business banking units in dealing with a range of financial challenges and projects. Most notably, the legal department has overseen the development of the Bank's digital area with the introduction of mobile services, a mobile banking app and internet banking services. The legal department ensure compliance in a number of areas and services, including retail and commercial banking, debit and credit cards, and insurance products and services ensuring the company stay abreast of regulatory challenges in all areas affecting the Bank.
Barclays Bank of Kenya is a part of Absa Group, an African financial services group that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa and is one of Africa's largest diversified financial services groups with a presence in 12 countries across the content with around 42,000 employees. The in-house legal team at Barclays Bank of Kenya provide expert advice on the Bank's retail, business, corporate and investment and wealth management divisions and is managed by head of legal and secretarial services, Elizabeth Willilo, who has more than 12 years of experience in the industry and is passionate about nurturing talent and developing the legal department. The legal department has been tasked with the rebranding of Absa, formerly Barclays Africa Group, following last year's sale by the UK banking giant of its stake in Africa, in which Absa Group became a parent company to Barclays Bank Kenya. Recently, Barclays Bank has been deemed the most gender-diverse company in Kenya according to a corporate governance study by Cytonn. The legal department has been behind encouraging the diversity within the company through internally implementing effective labour law policies, and contributing towards an improved corporate governance, which is key to investor protection.
BBOXX, is a Solar platform company bringing machine-learning and customer experience optimisation to rural parts of Africa. Headquartered in London with nearly 600 staff across five offices in China, East Africa and the UK, BBOXX has developed 150,000 solar panel systems and aims to provide electricity to twenty million people by 2020. The small and innovative in-house legal team is led by Simon Cox, general counsel and global head of legal and compliance. Having practiced for over thirty years as a private practice partner in two UK law firms and at a law firm in the US, as well as in-house experience, his leadership is incredibly valuable. The team covers the whole remit of the legal needs of BBOXX's expanding global portfolio, from the negotiation and sale of solar product assets and the internal governance of the firm, to its intellectual property. The team works tenaciously to protect the integrity of the company and assist it in the expansion of its business across Africa.
South Africa is an important market for German multinational car company BMW, as one of a handful of locations where the company produces its luxury automobiles and motorcycles. BMW in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan region has a legal department that, since May 2017, has been led by general manager for legal services, Vimla Parbhoo who brings 16 years of commercial legal experience across a broad range of disciplines to the company. South Africa had the first BMW factory outside of Germany and the legal department has been behind a number of projects in the country, most recently dealing with all legal matters relating to the release of the new BMW 8 series expecting to arrive in South Africa in the first quarter of 2019. The legal department has also undergone changes to better manage BMW's legal risk in the region, by streamlining processes in the legal department to drive efficiencies, further delineating roles of the team, optimising current resources and building capacity in-house to reduce external legal costs. The team is recognised in this list for having impressed a number of private practice peers during the course of the research.
With operations in 72 countries worldwide, BP's presence in Southern Africa spans Angola, South Africa and Mozambique. As the world's leading international oil and gas companies, BP provides customers in the aforementioned countries with fuel and energy used for a range of purposes. The legal team in Southern Africa oversees the upstream area of Angola, as well as the downstream businesses in South Africa and Mozambique, requiring the legal team to give legal advice on a wide range of matters. The legal team has assisted in BP Mozambique acquiring an overall 18% market share as well as the market leader in the supply of lubricants (with 35% market share) and aviation fuels (with 50% market share). The legal team has also recently guided BP South Africa in signing a formal agreement with Africa's leading food retailer, Pick 'n Pay, for 120 BP Express stores to be converted to Pick 'n Pay Express stores over the next five years. Additionally it has been engaged in projects in the country, as BP is one of the largest foreign investors in Angola and their competence has been integral to its steady growth in the country. Francisco Simão is the managing counsel and vice president legal affairs for Angola, South Africa and Mozambique and leads the legal department to provide legal support to the company's local exploration and production portfolio, which includes blocks 18 and 31 in the deep and ultra-deep waters of the Congo basin and blocks 15 and 17 in the deep waters of the Kwanza and Benguela basins. The legal team also helped launch the BPSA Education Foundation, an organisation that invests significantly on initiatives specifically aimed at developing educational programmes in under-resourced schools.
CDC is a development finance institution wholly owned by the UK government's Department for International Development, investing in businesses in developing countries since 1948 with much of the balance sheet currently invested in Africa. The Group invests capital both directly and indirectly and also provides debt and mezzanine finance to companies and projects. In the last year it has made numerous investments such as its US$97m investment in Nubian Suns, the world's largest solar park in Egypt. Another example is its proposed €100m investment in Nachtigal, a hydro-electric plant in Cameroon, which it expects to close this year. CDC group also enters into participation agreements with leading commercial banks and has created a subsidiary, MedAccess Guarantee, which increases access to low-cost medical products and services through the provision of volume guarantees to pharmaceutical companies. Finally, it is a significant indirect investor in African companies through its commitments to private equity and infrastructure funds managed by third party fund managers. An example of an innovative indirect investment is its US$20m commitment to Solon, a Sierra Leonian fund, which has invested in the education and transport sectors. The in-house legal team is led by general counsel, Mark Kenderdine-Davies and supported by associate general counsel Elizabeth Tirone, with two managing counsel, Andy Wallace and Justin Pavry. Seven lawyers support the equity team, a further seven lawyers are in the debt and project finance team, and three in the intermediated equity team, while tax executives work across all product lines. The most significant structural changes in the team over the past two years has been a reduction in general counsel reporting lines and increased associate general and managing counsel responsibilities. The team works broadly across continents and are often working on transactions in countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Egypt and Cote d'Ivoire. Kenderdine-Davies says, 'a willingness to get on a plane at short notice to move deals along or fix problems is a prerequisite for a CDC lawyer. We are developing our team culture. We know what makes a CDC lawyer, they are creative, diligent, lateral thinkers with healthy scepticism and good humour in equal measures. They believe in our mission and developmental mandate. They provide legal and commercial counsel, not just legal advice and are willing to be involved in deals and special situations from the very get go!'
General counsel Lucky Nengite, leads the legal team at Chevron Nigeria (CNL) comprised of 12 lawyers and three non-lawyers. Each CNL lawyer is assigned responsibility as the primary legal contact for specific functional groups such as joint venture operations, supply chain management, deepwater operations and junior lawyers in the department report to more senior lawyers. Ten lawyers are located at CNL's headquarters in Lagos while two lawyers are based near CNL's operations in the Niger Delta. While every lawyer is assigned a primary area of responsibility, each may be called upon to provide legal support to any CNL client group. There have been multiple changes within the legal department over the past two years. First, CNL's prior general counsel moved to a position in Chevron's Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company in the summer of 2017, resulting in Lucky Nengite's appointment to the general counsel role. Additionally, a legal advisor, Chijioke Emole, who had been on multiple foreign assignments for 12 years returned to CNL in March 2018. Nengite says, 'these events prompted significant modifications to each lawyer's role within the department and required each member of the legal team to assume additional work and responsibility'. In terms of recent transactions, the Chevron Nigeria team has been busy concluding some important deals, including a US$780m financing package with a consortium of Nigerian banks to fund a multi-year drilling program both onshore and near-offshore in Nigeria. CNL's legal department provided extensive support on the transaction, which has resulted in increased production, the replacement of diminishing reserves and addressing perennial challenges in funding the JV's upstream activities. In addition, CNL, as well as four other International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria, negotiated and executed an agreement to recover its share of approximately US$5bn of historical cash call obligations owed to the IOCs by their joint venture partner. Nengite says, 'these sums will be repaid from the additional revenues generated by incremental production, which was in turn enabled by the aforementioned outside funding transactions'. Additionally the team works well as a unit collaboratively working on projects and overcoming problems. Nengite describes the team as striving to 'provide timely, business-focused and solution-oriented legal services, and achieving superior performance, safely and with integrity. This culture arises from the cohesiveness of a legal team that holds each other to high standards, utilizes the collective experience, diversity and skills of each member of the department, and puts CNL's goals above any personal goals'.
Based in Mauritius, international investment group Ciel, operates in five business clusters; agro and property, textile, hotels and resorts, finance and healthcare and is present in more than 10 countries across emerging markets in Africa and Asia, with approximately 30,000 employees. The Mauritius legal team is led by the highly-praised Christine Sauzier who joined Ciel in 2006 as senior executive legal affairs and was promoted to head of legal affairs of 2010. The in-house legal function she manages work on several deals, including important M&A work, most notably in cross-border deals in various countries where the group is invested, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean and Asia. The legal team advises management on compliance matters and many other issues related to deal structuring and shareholder matters, while also liaising with international and local lawyers for drafting and reviewing commercial contracts and other legal documents.
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage group with over 500 brands and 3,900 beverage varieties. Africa, as part of the Europe, Middle East and Africa division makes up 29% of the company's annual revenue, its largest geographical share. Coca-Cola operates two business units in Africa, Southern and East Africa and West Africa, with Northern areas part of its Middle East sector. Mpumi Mazibuko, legal counsel director, leads the South Africa based legal team for the Southern and East Africa business unit, a top level in-house legal department expertly handling the diverse jurisdictions within its remit. The team is well regarded across the sector for its skill in legal management of the sector's many jurisdictions and its integrity in compliance, corporate governance and internal controls program implementation.
The West Africa business unit of multinational beverage company, Coca-Cola, covers 32 countries in a region which is almost half of the continent's land area and population. The organisation's legal department spread across the Ivory Coast, Kenya and Nigeria is made up of four lawyers and two non-lawyers and is led by legal director, Antoinette Absaloms who defines the business unit's legal strategy and coordinates overall legal department work. To deliver relevant legal services to the diverse and complex geography it covers, the Coca-Cola WABU legal function has focused on partnering with the business to capture external opportunities while hedging against risks by proactively identifying external opportunities and mitigating against risks, and strategic allocation of resources by placing primary resources around transactions that support growth in key countries, while ensuring routine services that drive efficient daily operations are in place. The legal team has gone through changes necessitated by the company's re-organisation which led to a reduction in the numbers of associates in the department while the area of responsibility has expanded significantly both in terms of countries, as well as the work to be done. This has compelled the function to re-organise its operations to support the business agenda by redefining the areas under each legal counsel's responsibility, setting up legal systems and controls to support the new organisation and defining respective roles in the team and leveraging on each counsel's expertise to develop subject matter expertise within the team. The team has been involved in the acquisition of the largest juice, dairy and value added dairy player in Nigeria, through an initial acquisition of a 40% share in 2016 followed by acquiring of the remainder in January 2019. 'This process concludes an intense multi-national bidding process, due diligence and transaction close with no adverse regulatory or operational challenges in the medium to large M&A category', says legal counsel for West Islands and Mid Africa (WIMA), Mohamed Komara. Making up the rest of the team are legal counsel for Nigeria and Equatorial Orok Efiom, senior paralegal Evelyn Ilerhunmwuwa and legal administrative assistant Jacklyne Kivala.
Globally, Cushman & Wakefield operates 3.5 billion square feet of property and generated US$6.9bn of revenue in 2017, making it major player in the property management industry. With operations in 70 countries, Cushman & Wakefield is a global operation. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa Cushman & Wakefield's affiliated partner is Excellerate Property Services, which has a wealth of experience in the Southern African property market. It is one of Africa's largest property managers with a large range of fully integrated, self-performing properties and services including property asset management, facility management, corporate real estate services and project management. Cushman & Wakefield has 22 offices in South Africa as well as in Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania. To run this large operation takes a strong legal outfit, with strong property, commercial, corporate and financial background, and Cushman & Wakefield's South Africa-based in-house team has this in abundance. Led by the highly decorated Madeleine Truter, head of legal, who joined in June 2018, the team has impressed with its expert handling of a complex geographical and jurisdictional coverage and its work on major expansions and deals across the region.
Dangote Cement is the largest producer of cement in Africa and the dominant player in the industry operating across 10 countries with revenues of over US$2.2bn in 2017. Spread over its facilities in Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, the company employs 24,000 people among which is Dangote's esteemed legal function. Group chief legal counsel and company secretary Mahmud Kazaure, leads the expert in-house legal team responsible for all commercial legal, international business, civil litigation, contractual drafting and other legal guidance and service. Based in Nigeria, but with a multijurisdictional pan-African focus, the legal team is highly skilled and has impressed in its handling of the largest listed company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and its planning for its continued expansion.
DEG is a development finance institution and a subsidiary of German government-owned bank, KfW Group, founded in Germany in 1962. For its 55 years of operation, DEG has been a reliable partner to private-sector enterprises operating in emerging-market countries, giving tailored financial advice to individual needs in Asia, Latin America, Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and Africa. With a representative office in Johannesburg, the legal team manages the legal operations in business investment opportunities across Africa, working on strengthening trade relations between the African countries and Europe. Amongst their areas of support, the team advise on financial projects aimed at stimulating the country's economy in the areas of agribusiness and sustainable development, guiding private investors in tourism, infrastructure and manufacturing. An example is DEG promoting sustainable organic farming and processing tropical fruits in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, helping more than 1,200 farmers and their families, an initiative aimed at promoting sustainable organic farming and processing of tropical fruit in a competitive global market. As an extension of this, the legal team helps to offer training programmes for Ivorian farmers in organic agriculture, helping them set up production cooperatives. Recently, DEG invested US$50m in South African bank FirstRand, helping contribute to job creation within local small and medium-sized enterprises.
Diageo produces some of the world's most iconic drink brands and Africa makes up 12% of the multinational's net global sales, a sizeable proportion which its legal team in the region help guarantee. As legal director and company secretary, Sandie Paho Handou leads the West and Central African and Indian Ocean legal team based in Cameroon. The highly experienced and professional team is known for being skilled in dispute resolution, contracts, compliance, negotiation and corporate legal matters and is frequently involved in the expansion of Diageo's African business footprint. They have also gained particular praise for their work in helping eradicate the manufacture and sale of illicit alcohol in the countries they cover.
Diamond Bank began as a private limited company in 1991. Ten years later in 2001, it became a universal bank and in 2005 following a highly successful private placement share offer which substantially raised the Bank's equity base, Diamond Bank was listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. Led by company secretary and legal adviser Uzoma Uja, the Nigerian legal department is comprised of 36 lawyers in Nigeria, the UK and Diamond Bank covering The Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo and Benin Republic. Multinational Nigerian financial service provider, Diamond Bank is Nigeria's fastest growing bank and operates 267 branches in Nigeria. Over the years the bank has won a number of awards, marking its value and ongoing strength in the continent. In 2006 they were awarded "Best Bank in Mergers & Acquisitions, 2006" a feat that was largely attributed to the legal departments work. Some of their most important deals include negotiating the deal in which Carlyle Group becoming a significant shareholder in November 2014, following its US$147m investment in the bank, this was a major milestone for Diamond Bank and a sign of confidence in the Bank's market strength.
Djezzy has grown to become Algeria's primary mobile network operator, with over 16.49 million subscribers as of November 2011 and a network spanning 90% of the population. Djezzy was a subsidiary of the Egyptian company Global Telecom Holding, and in 2014 the Algerian state bought 51% of it, acquiring Algeria's second GSM license on July 2001 with a bid of US$737m and was officially launched on February 2002. The legal department is led by Sophie Verdejo, who serves as the deputy director general for legal affairs and amasses an extensive career in the telecoms industry. The legal team has assisted in a number of innovative launches to become the leading digital operator in Algeria the areas of prepaid, post-paid voice and data telecommunications services. Most notably, they helped with Djezzy becoming part of VEON (former VimpelCom) Group in 2011, after the merger between OTH and VimpelCom groups. The legal team guided the 2015 National Investment Fund taking control of 51% of the company capital, while the foreign partner, Veon Group, retained responsibility for the management company. The legal department also helped launch the long anticipated 4G services, on October 1st 2016, for the aim of covering more than 50% of the population by 2021.
East African Breweries is a public listed company that manufactures alcoholic beers and spirits and non-alcoholic beverages in East Africa. It is the parent company of Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), Uganda Breweries Limited and Serengeti Breweries Limited. The legal function is also spread across East Africa and is headed by group legal director, Nadida Rowlands, who reports to the group managing director, the KBL director and Diageo's senior counsel in charge of Africa. Rowlands oversees the functions in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, in their support of legal governance, information management and security, corporate security and brand protection. 'His vision for the function is to have the team work like an efficient law firm which delivers to its client on all assignments on time, in full with no errors', says a nominator. The legal department has four departments across East Africa, namely, legal, governance, corporate security, and information management and security. The legal department has made various internal changes to increase efficiency. Micky Matheka, legal manager for KBL, says: 'In the financial year 2017, the legal function implemented a new operations model. At the core of the model is the legal service centre. The centre has three arms: an online service desk; a call centre and specific email addresses to cater for various needs of the business. The legal service centre is manned by an operations manager. The aim of this model is to enhance efficiency, transparency and accountability'. The legal team has played a critical role in the set-up of the KBL Kisumu Brewery in the 2017-18 financial year. The new brewery will be dedicated to the manufacture of Senator Keg, an affordable and healthy beverage, which will compete with and eliminate illicit brews. The legal team provided advice to the business on how to set up the brewery, engaged with the government and obtained tax concessions, negotiated and prepared all contracts with the service providers, and obtained the requisite permits for the brewery from all relevant authorities.
ElSewedy Electric is a North African and Middle Eastern electricity company with eight diversified segments and a global leader in cable manufacturing and energy services including renewables. The company's highly skilled in-house legal team is led by Mahmood Shaarawy, group legal director, and has impressed with its multi-jurisdictional coverage, continued success during difficult financial times and for its leadership on new projects and expansions. In December 2017, a subsidiary of ElSewedy Electric signed an E£477m contract for the construction of a new substation adding significant investment to its already large portfolio including 30 production facilities across 15 countries in the Middle East and Africa. ElSewedy's legal team are also credited for recently helping the company obtain an award for a solar photovoltaic project under Round II of Egypt renewables Feed-inTariff program as well as an EPC contract with Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company for an overhead transmission line worth a total value of US$190m.
Fiona Gumede, general manager and company secretary, legal and security, leads a top-notch team consisting of ten lawyers, four paralegals, and two compliance specialists at Engen. The department provides legal support to the business, which includes the management of legal costs, interaction with external and internal stakeholders, compliance, litigation and dispute resolution, contract management, governance and risk management. Within the team, legal services manager Anton Pienaar handles the day-to-day operations of the group, alongside compliance manager Peter Kituri and assistant company secretary Seemah Samsodien. In the last two years, the company has restructured the legal department, centralising multiple subdivisions into one legal team run by members at regional offices across South Africa. The lawyers based at the regional offices mainly support the front-line business and are responsible for property transactions, litigation and dispute resolution, credit management and liquidations. Another key change was the inclusion of the corporate security team into the legal and company secretary division. This has resulted in the integration of 16 new staff, and approximately 450 security contractors. The legal team has been involved in a number of significant transactions over the past year including the successful resolution of a competition law case and reached a settlement with the Competition Commission. On this success, Gumede says, 'The settlement agreement now provides clarity in terms of information exchange guidelines. The settlement agreement was reached on the basis of no admission of liability to the company'. Additionally, the team is regularly involved and provides support on a range of M&A transactions in South Africa and across the African continent . The team has also recently been involved in an industry precedent setting matter in South Africa involving a Constitutional Court judgement relating to the interpretation of petroleum sector contracts. The team has also developed an IT compliance framework in response to the company's digital transformation journey. This includes a focus on the data privacy regimes across the various jurisdictions in which Engen operates. Gumede adds that 'the team strives to be an accessible, integral and value adding division focusing on providing services with excellence and ensuring a positive customer experience. This vision statement evolved pursuant to the creation of one legal team subsequent to the restructure. Developing the team's vision involved participation from every team member, which has helped ensure buy-in at all levels'.
With over 50 years in the continent, ENGIE Africa is active in a variety of countries through its power generation, energy services, and micro-grid/off-grid subsidiaries. The 12-member legal team in Africa is led by general counsel and ethics officer, Hillary Berger, an experienced lawyer with over 20 years' experience in the areas of project finance and M&A deals in over five continents. Under her management, the legal team assist in ENGIE's ongoing goal of becoming a reference partner in Africa for power generation, renewables, and energy services to businesses, communities, companies and households. The ENGIE Africa legal team successes in the past 12 months include achieving financial close of the 250MW Gulf of Suez wind farm in Egypt (MENA Wind Deal of the Year for 2017); signing two PPAs in Senegal under the World Bank's Scaling Solar program; the development of eight hybrid solar power plants in Gabon; and completing M&A transactions of more than $100m in value with multiple pan-African energy players active in energy services and solar home systems.
Regarded by many industry observers as the best-performing airline in Africa, Ethiopian Airlines' success story since beginning the ambitious, 15-year "Vision 2025" expansion plan eight years ago has been remarkable. At the start of this period, it was the fourth-largest airline on the continent – now it is the largest by most metrics, including fleet size, capacity and route network. This feat has been achieved due to excellent governance and exceptional performance throughout the company, with the legal team making a major contribution to the company's success. Genanaw Assefa, vice president, legal counsel and corporate secretariat, leads the team and has been at the forefront of some of Ethiopian Airlines' legal team's successes in recent years. This has included supporting the development and operation of an aviation group offering full service for the company's activities. This means the establishment of its own aviation academy to provide a steady stream of pilots and technicians, and plans to for the company to create its own maintenance, repair, and operating facilities to use on its network globally.
Etisalat Misr is a subsidiary of Emirati telecommunication company Etisalat UAE, and was first launched in May 2007, soon after Etisalat announced the 3G services launch in Cairo. As the first 3.5G network operator in Egypt and one of 15 service providers managed by Etisalat in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, the legal team is required to react quickly to the frequent changes and launches of new functions and improvements. Key successful points include the July 30th 2001 granting of the 2G license, the December 2nd 2013 granting of the 3G licence and finally the September 4th 2016 granting of the 4G license. Led by highly distinguished general counsel Dr Mohamed Shehata, who brings a range of experience from previous legal roles, the legal team possesses a strong level of competence in matters involving employment, intellectual property, insurance, and corporate disputes. They have set the legal foundation in order for Etisalat Misr to have an exclusive international gateway, making it unique in the way it provides its services across the country, and enabling the operator to offer the first downlink speeds up to 7.2 megabit per second which is two times faster than 3.5G downlink speeds. Further strengthening the company's product portfolio, the team assisted in Etisalat Misr's acquisition of two well established internet service providers, Nile On Line and EgyNet, subsequently acquiring two subsidiaries shortly after. Thanks to this acquisition, Etisalat is offering ADSL service along with the usual mobile services.
The in-house legal team at ExxonMobil Nigeria is made up of highly experienced and talented lawyers who operate across the ExxonMobil group affiliate companies and cover the entire realm of ExxonMobil's activities in the oil and gas, and energy industry. The team is highly adept at all regulatory guidance and commercial aspects of the multinational oil conglomerate's activities in Nigeria, which include research, exploration and financing of crude oil, heavy oil, petrochemicals, natural gas, and other petroleum products. It is also a major producer of electric power generation facilities which is an area of growth for the company. The legal team ensures the quality of the company's products from a legal point of view and assists with all M&A, joint venture and deep-water production sharing contracts and other activity.
Leading steel producer Ezz Steel is the largest steel company in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa region. Together with its subsidiaries, it produces and sells long and flat steel products internationally, while manufacturing and trading steel and related products. The Egypt legal team is led by general counsel, Waleed Shoukry, who joined the company in October 2015. The legal department has recently supported the company in its plans to expand in the region, where it has now become a global player with investments of more than US$4bn in the latest technology, helping on the addition of the new Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) mega module at Ain Sokhna Ezz Steel, and becoming the second largest DRI producer worldwide, with a capacity of 5.1 million tons per year. The legal team has successfully helped the company start-up of the HYL III, DR plant in December 2015, allowing Ezz Steel to meet its objective of servicing two product ranges, long products and hot rolled coils.
Fedex is global shipping and logistics powerhouse and a household name in the industry across the world. Headquartered in Memphis, US, Fedex has expanded its coverage across the world in freight, shipping, aviation, and other shipping logistics services. In Southern Africa, Fedex offers FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Global Logistics, FedEx Custom Critical and FedEx Services. Managing the legal needs of this diverse business is a top notch in-house legal team based in Pretoria, South Africa and led by Natasha Parmanand, head legal and corporate governance, which is responsible for the legal business of the company in South Africa and across Sub-Saharan Africa. In the last year Fedex Express announced its merger with TNT in South Africa, combining networks and support structures, a major boost to its African, Middle Eastern and European network.
First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) was founded in 1991 as a wholly owned subsidiary of First National Bank Holdings (Botswana). Today, FNBB is the largest company on the Botswana Stock Exchange by capitalisation, becoming the most profitable bank in the country. The company's legal team is led by head of legal, Gaone Setlhake. Described by nominators as 'innovative' and someone who possesses 'great interpersonal skills', Pauline Mabelebele is another key member of the legal team. The legal team expertly covers a full range of legal matters for the company's divisions including investment banking, international trade finance, custody and trustee services. The legal team has worked on a number of significant transactions recently including recently closing the company's biggest deal to date which involved the redevelopment of the largest mall in Botswana, involving extensive negotiation, structuring and execution of the project finance documents.
The FirstRand group is a leading financial services provider from South Africa offering a full range of banking products and services to clients in various jurisdictions across the continent. The group legal team in South Africa has been involved in a number of significant M&A transactions over the last two years, including the disposal by FirstRand Bank of its Discovery-branded credit card business to Discovery Bank and the acquisition of the Aldermore group in the UK. Praised and recognised by peers in the region, one nominator says: 'In all our dealings with the team we have found them exceptionally professional with great insight into the complex matters that they dealt with. They always make a very valuable contribution to the legal advice that is required on the transactions that they are involved in and are able to work with external counsel in a very co-operative and constructive way'. FirstRand's legal department are known for contributing to the management of legal risks with great insight into the workings of the group.
The legal department of GE Africa is an expert force within the energy and utilities industry across Sub-Saharan Africa, with a long history of excellence across the region in the electric manufacturing industry as well as aviation, healthcare, and capital. Adesua Dozie, general counsel for GE Africa, leads the in-house legal team in legal strategy, joint ventures, legal drafting, employment and commercial legal matters for the company across the continent. GE raises revenues of around US$7.3bn in Africa and covers 25 countries with a focus on Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya. It is involved with infrastructure projects and other public work with governments and local companies across the region to further the provision of energy, healthcare and transport in Africa.
Gemfields is focused on mining coloured gemstones in Africa, with its primary assets located in Zambia and Mozambique, exploration activities elsewhere in Africa and its primary listing on the JSE. Gemfields also owns the fine jewellery brand, Fabergé, as a champion for coloured gemstones. The industry which Gemfields operates in has unfortunately had a history of lack of transparency and unethical business practices. Gemfields is transforming the industry for the better and the legal department plays a critical role in supporting that transformation. This provides a wealth of cross-border work for the company's legal team to deal with, led by group general counsel and company secretary, Toby Hewitt. Hewitt himself comes highly recommended by nominating sources, who described him as 'an experienced, knowledgeable and very dynamic lawyer who oversees legal matters both at the company and its subsidiaries', and provided some insight into the team's achievements over the past couple of years. On the expansion of the team, Hewitt said: 'The recruitment of other lawyers to assist me in the burgeoning legal workload of the Group has been the most important internal change over the past two years. Previously, I was effectively acting as the sole counsel in the organisation. The recruitment of a team in support has allowed me to be more strategic in my approach, increased the overall capacity of the legal department to get involved in new areas and has helped to contain external legal spend'. Now, the team has added significant legal talent into its ranks, allowing Hewitt to focus more on big-picture matters in support of the business. 'Richard Pyke, the more senior of the two other lawyers, is very capable and soaks up much of the day-to-day work', he explains. 'Likewise, Natalie Phillips, my assistant, provides valuable support in the administration of the numerous domestic and international subsidiaries in the Group and the Group's trademark portfolio. The newest member of the team, Amelia Thomson, is already showing great potential. We are a close-knit team with minimum formality in our everyday interactions'. Overall, Hewitt believes the team's culture is 'one of mutual respect, getting the job done with minimum fuss and empowerment to work autonomously on projects'.
Gold Fields is a globally diversified gold producer with seven operating mines in Australia, Ghana, Peru and South Africa, with a total annual gold-equivalent production of approximately 2.2 million ounces. As one of the largest gold producers in the world, it employs over 50,000 employees at its various operations. An integral part of its workforce is the legal team, described as 'excellent' by nominators, has been proactively involved in the company's most important corporate deals. One of these, the listing of Sibanye Gold, formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gold Fields, required the team to work on the listing documentation for both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, and to assist with financial documents for both Gold Fields and Sibanye Gold. Executive vice president and group general counsel Taryn Harmse leads the team on numerous deals, most notably the buyout of the Ghana minorities from IAMGOLD Corp in June 2011 for US$670m. Other achievements for the legal department include involvement in the joint venture negotiations relating to the closing of the Chucapaca agreement with Buenaventura in Peru, and completing a US$1bn bond for Gold Fields in September 2010.
Henk Crouse, general counsel, leads the legal team at HSBC supervising three lawyers and an assistant handling the global banking colossus' legal affairs across Africa. The team proactively steers the bank free of any reputational risks and covers a wide portfolio of products including advisory, corporate lending, markets and trade and cash management. The team includes associate general counsel Carolyn Smith, responsible for corporate lending, global trade markets and the investment banking side, and Paula Conway, senior legal counsel, responsible for credit and corporate lending, global trade and receivables, procurement, global liquidity and cash management, and global markets work. In the past two years, the legal team has worked on creating new and strong confidentiality systems for storage of electronic data for the bank's clients and staff. It has also managed the considerable financial regulation legislation in the last few years including POPI, FICA Amendments Act, Financial Services Reform Act, Financial Services Act Regulations, MiFID II, Market Abuse Regulation, CRS, and UK Ring-fencing legislation. Some of the team's major successes include the opening of a representative office, a US$600m revolving facility agreement for a local mining company; a US$300m term loan for a local bank; refinancing of a US$75m loan to a local financial institution; a ZAR4.5bn revolving borrowing base finance facility; and a US$700m dual currency term loan facility. Crouse identifies the team's ethos as, 'to be seen as being an integral part of the business while still managing the legal risks. This is done by providing expert and professional legal advice, marketing the legal team throughout the organisation by walking the floors and building trusted relationships with key stakeholders'.
Chinese multinational, telecommunications equipment and services company Huawei has established its business in Nigeria with plans to benefit from the growing demand of mobile phone usage across Africa. With more than 90 million people with mobile phones in Africa, Nigeria is a good testing ground for the Chinese company's consumer business. The legal team is led by country general counsel Edwin Yu, who steers the department to deal with a large range of expansive projects in the country. In addition, Huawei Nigeria's legal team is credited for providing exert guidance on copyright and other intellectual property rights, regulatory compliance for the company's digital content business services and the legal audit and due diligence of companies and proposed transactions. Social contribution has also been a strong point for the company within Nigeria, with the legal team providing advice in the areas of legislation lobbying, as well as legal and compliance public affairs.
Founded in 1940 and owned by the South African government, IDC is a national development finance institution set up to promote economic growth and industrial development under the supervision of the Economic Development Department. The legal department is led by Bassy Makwane, who is part of the executive team and moulds the strategic decision-making agenda. The legal team forms a central part of the company's core values of directing every operation with passion, partnership and professionalism. As a company that takes pride in its 70-year establishment in the petro-chemicals and minerals industries, it is the legal team's task to expand the investment in the rest of Africa, through the viability of large projects in the continent, introducing favourable legal conditions to investors and consequently allowing the company to grow. Investments by IDC in Africa include mining, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and telecommunications. The legal team also needs to remain well aligned with emerging government policy direction, in order to support the company in playing a major role in facilitating a competitive industrial base. In October 2018, the legal department helped the company invest R100m in Lucapa's Lesotho mine for its Mothae Kimberlite diamond mine. The facility will span a four year period, and is predicted to considerably strengthen Mothae's financial position.
International Finance Corporation, the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries, operates in 22 countries within Sub-Saharan Africa, with offices in Senegal, Kenya and South Africa, being its regional hubs for West and Central Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa respectively. The 'exceptionally talented, passionate and hard-working' Africa regional legal team, as described by nominators, is spread across these hub offices: The general counsel is based in Johannesburg with two other lawyers and two legal assistants whilst an additional two lawyers are in each of the Dakar and Nairobi hub offices with another legal assistant based in Nairobi. IFC's Africa region legal team is led by general counsel for Sub-Saharan Africa Zurina Saban who is described by nominators as 'exceptional' and is responsible for managing the company's legal and regulatory matters in Africa, overseeing corporate and project legal risk across its sizable investment and advisory portfolios in the region, and as part of IFC's Africa management team. Together, the Africa regional legal team have primary responsibility for ensuring adequate legal cover on all IFC investments, both new business and portfolio projects as well as advisory service projects in the region, including across all product types and industry sectors that IFC operates in. Given the scope of work required, the team consists of senior lawyers with approximately 100 years of combined post-qualification experience in banking, project and corporate finance among them and supported by legal assistants with significant experience on transactional legal services. 'The Africa regional legal team's ethos is grounded in its passion for Africa and its desire to bring about impactful change through innovation. Outside of its focus on investment, one of the team's key commitments relates to knowledge sharing', says Saban. To this end, the team creates and executes an annual knowledge sharing work plan, which focuses on sharing knowledge across business departments internally at IFC and also at capacity building initiatives outside of IFC. Impressing peers with their work and varied capabilities, one nominator had the following to say: 'They not only all have superb technical ability and expertise to deftly execute many difficult and complex transactions across a wide range of African jurisdictions, with many different and varied legal and security and political and other risks, but do so with flexibility, commerciality and integrity, and are always an absolute pleasure to work with'.
Imperial Holdings is large multinational logistics and vehicle company founded in 1948 as a small car dealership in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa; it has since grown to earn R119, 517m in revenue and R6, 538m in profit in 2017 across its African and European footprint. Running the legal affairs of this complex business, which employs 48,000 people across 33 countries and makes billions of Rand yearly, is a major operation and accomplished expertly by its highly skilled in-house legal department. Led by Rohan Venter, group legal advisor and company secretary, it deftly handles all commercial, regulatory, financial and dispute resolution legal services for the company across its many jurisdictions. In the last year, among other prominent deals and transactions, the team worked diligently to unbundle Motus from the company's listing on the JSE and achieve its separate listing.
History was made at Kenya Airways in October 2018 when it began the first direct flights from Kenya to the US, cutting off a significant portion of a flight which previously required time-consuming stopovers in Europe or the Middle East. Kenya Airways' legal team has been instrumental to every part of overseeing this process, including negotiating landing rights and purchasing the equipment needed to operate the route – including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft that fly it. Teodosia Osir is general counsel and head of corporate affairs at the company and is among the most highly regarded in-house counsel in Africa having achieved excellent results both at Kenya Airways and during a highly successful tenure with Qatar Airways.
The legal function at KTDA, one of the largest private tea management agencies in Kenya, is led by assistant general manager of legal and regulatory affairs Susan Musyoka and currently manages 67 tea processing companies in the small-scale tea sub-sector in Kenya. The KTDA group of companies comprises of eight fully operational subsidiaries with interests in: warehousing; insurance brokerage; micro-finance; tea marketing; supply of equipment required for tea processing, steel plants, fertiliser factories and other industrial projects; and electric power production, for the supply of electricity to the tea processing factories. This electric power subsidiary is currently developing several run-of-river hydro power projects, with several having been commissioned. The team is able to ensure that KTDA's extensive business operations are fully compliant from a legal perspective. Regarding Musyoka, one nominator identified that she 'is able to deliver on high value deals, including a syndicated project financing for the development of several run-of river hydro power projects'.
Twelve individuals strong and responsible for a diverse range of business units across a very large geographical area, the Lafarge Africa Plc (LAP)'s legal team has spearheaded a number of strategic projects of vital importance to the group, as general counsel Edith Onwuchekwa explained. 'As well as the consolidation of Lafarge Nigeria and Africa operations back in 2014', she explains, 'in 2017 the team was instrumental in the delisting of a listed subsidiary, the establishment of the N132b rights issue programme and the merger of the company with United Cement Company. In 2018, we continued our support of the company's compliance programme by succeeding in implementing the N90b rights issue programme'. A comprehensive restructure has assisted the team in achieving these and other successes, with specialised teams being created to increase knowledge across the function. Onwuchekwa has seen the team develop its skills to the currently very high level of proficiency it enjoys, describing it in glowing terms: 'the team has evolved by developing lawyers with the expertise and experience to support the business, ensuring seamless operation of the business activities'.
With operations in Southern Africa, India, Poland and a number of European countries and a JSE Top 40 listing, as well as a highly diversified healthcare portfolio for its private clients, Life Healthcare's operations provide a consistently high workload for its in-house legal team to tackle. Mark Stafford, head of legal and insurance for Life Healthcare, leads the team and has built up a stellar reputation as a top-notch in-house counsel in the nine years he has practiced with the company. His tenure has seen the team reach an extremely high level of performance as well, with Stafford summing up the team culture that has encouraged this: 'The team enjoys a strong culture of collaboration, sharing of knowledge and legal debate has development amongst the team. This culture forms part of the glue which binds the team together and results in brain storming sessions which facilitate innovative legal solutions that are designed to facilitate achievement by the Group of its strategic goals'. Stafford has a number of projects to choose from when discussing his six-person function's main successes in the past two years, opting for a varied overview of both external and internal achievements. 'The acquisition of Alliance Medical Group in November 2016 was based on an enterprise value of approximately £800m', he explains, 'and involved launching a rights offer worth ZAR9bn in order to raise the funds necessary to repay the bridge funding that was put in place for the acquisition. We also oversaw the outsourcing of the entire Group's IT infrastructure –including a highly complex and specialist series of agreements which resulted in the introduction of some pioneering changes to the IT environment – and the strategic disposal of the Group's investment in Max Healthcare Institute (an Indian based private hospital group) for an amount of approximately ZAR4.5bn'.
Marsa Maroc is the top Moroccan logistics company operating port terminals in North Africa. It operates nine terminals and oversaw the passage of 36.6 million tonnes of freight in 2016. Founded in 2006, the company has quickly developed its dominant position in Morocco. Abdelhak Bendahmane, director of legal affairs, leads the in-house legal team which provides expert coverage of all maritime legal, commercial, contractual and regulatory guidance for the company. The team has worked diligently on the company's IPO on the Casablanca Stock Exchange in July 2016 including the regulatory approval procedures with the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority. Additionally, the team has helped with the design and implementation, from a legal perspective, of the company's new computer system and other compliance related actions.
Massmart Holdings is a South African-centred global investment holding company with a large portfolio of consumer goods companies across Africa in retail and wholesale formats. The company is the second largest distributer of consumer goods in Africa and one of the largest in liquor, basic foodstuffs and home improvement supplies. Operating from South Africa, Massmart's in-house legal team is led by group general counsel and company secretary Joe Ralebepa, and consists of top professionals across the consumer goods industry. Skilled in all areas of commercial, contractual, dispute resolution, consumer regulatory and financial legal areas, Massmart's revered legal team is highly qualified to operate this large organisation's legal affairs. Members of the legal team recently assisted Massmart in launching the company's sixth solar plant to become the biggest producer of renewable energy in South Africa's retail sector.
A media and communications company which owns and manages television, radio and other media entities, Media General Ghana operates some of the industry's largest and diversified businesses and its growing portfolio includes some of the best domestic television stations in news and entertainment, namely TV3 Network, Adesa productions, MG Digital Media and MG Radio. The in-house legal department is at the core of the company's investment in and building of great media and related companies for the benefit of the stakeholders and consumers. Akua Adu Boahene joined the company in November 2017 and leads the legal department in the capacity of legal manager. As a key part of the business' strategic direction, the legal department are central to all acquisitions, partnerships and transactions that form a core part of the company's exponential growth in Ghana.
Medtronic is a global pharmaceutical company that specialises in treating some of the world's most difficult chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease. For more than 30 years, Medtronic has worked in Southern and Sub-Saharan Africa establishing a strong market presence in the region serving both the public and private healthcare sectors. Led by Othelia Langner, head of legal and compliance (Southern Africa), the in-house legal team is highly regarded for its strong legal background, its strategic approach and provision of innovative and solution oriented advice covering commercial, regulatory, compliance, and ethical risk matters pertaining to the Southern African market. Recently, the team has assisted on the company's incorporation of Covidien as its Minimally Invasive Therapies working group, which has provided a major boost to the business.
Millicom's African presence has seen steady growth in its areas of operation. Driven by data, B2B and mobile financial services, the region delivered 10% of Millicom's Group revenue in 2017. Millicom relies on Africa to increase mobile data connections and smartphone adoption to continue executing the strategy to monetise data and strengthen the mobile financial services. Chad, Ghana and Tanzania have been core centres of operation for Millicom. The legal team have been committed to helping the business invest in these countries through digital transformation and improved network coverage, while helping the company to actively sponsor critical social causes and financial inclusion. With the introduction of new regulations that allow customers to earn interest on account balances, the legal team has been able to work on driving acquisitions and usage. In 2014, they worked on launching Tigo Music, a unique streaming service which connects customers to a playlist of more than 30 million songs. Millicom is also known for its philanthropic partnerships, acting as a catalyst for growth, investing in local talent and connecting people to life-changing digital infrastructure. For example, in Chad the legal team has helped establish exclusive partnerships with the three main universities, nurturing future brand ambassadors and contributing to the educational development of the country. Other partnerships have included the non-government aid organisation Action Conntre La Faim, helping distribute financial support put forward by the World Food Programme in western Kanem. In Tanzania, the team also plays an active role in accelerating the digital lifestyle, acquiring Tanzanian telecommunications company Zantel in Zanzibar. The legal team notably contributed to Tigo's world leading mobile brand Tigo Pesa, Africa's first ever universal interoperability network which allows customers to send and receive money regardless of the mobile money operator.
MSC is part of the Cargo Division of the MSC Group shipping conglomerate, a global business engaged in the shipping and logistics sector specifically in trade services, dry cargo, reefer cargo, project cargo, intermodal, warehousing and storage solutions, cross trading, e-business, customs clearance, ports, terminals, depots, cargo trailers and verified gross mass shipping. Based in South Africa, the highly regarded in-house legal team responsible for South African and regional legal matters is led by Carla Sanna, legal manager. The team deftly handles the commercial, customs, financial and regulatory legal controls for the company as well as its partnerships and major transactions. For example, the team has worked on new regulatory compliance relating to its commitments to the UN International Maritime Organization's sulphur emissions cap, and a partnership with TRAXENS to increase capability of supply chain management for shippers. This partnership with see MSC install 50,000 new smart containers, internet enabled containers, which allow shippers to track them in real time globally, a real innovation in the industry.
South African multinational telecommunications company MTN Group is headquartered in Johannesburg and operates in a number of African, European and Asian Countries. MTN has a recorded over 232 million subscribers across 20 countries with one-third of its revenues coming from Nigeria. The South African legal team is led by group chief legal counsel Michael Fleischer, and oversees a number of large executive sponsorships and acquisitions. Known for its football affiliation, over the years MTN has sponsored the CAF Champions League football competition as well as APOEL FC, winners of the Cypriot First Division in 2009, 2011, 2013 2014 and participants in the 2009-10 and 2011-12 UEFA Champions league. The legal team also helped establish MTN Group as primary sponsors of the South African national rugby union team as well as the lucrative sponsorship deal with Manchester United F.C, worth an estimated £5m, giving MTN exclusive rights to use the club's branding in promotions. Most recently, MTN Group sold 100% of its subsidiary in Cyprus for R4.1bn, MTN's only operating business in the European Union. The legal team has been required to adhere to various closing adjustments, allowing MTN to gain an attractive valuation. The legal team have also assisted the operator in investing in 5G technology, ensuring faster speeds and more reliable connections for devices, additionally working on a partnership with Nokia, to launch a revolutionary cognitive analytics solution for customer insight which will help the company understand user issues, reduce customer churn and grow usage.
Leading South African video entertainment company MultiChoice Holding operates under various brands including Dstv, M-Net, SuperSport and GOtv and was formed out of the subscriber-management branch of the M-Net Terrestrial Pay TV company. The legal department has previously worked on acquiring a number of subsidiaries, strengthening the company's reputation and helping it branch onto other service areas. Amongst these subsidiaries, DStv Mobile, has assisted the company in delivering television transmissions to mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones and notebooks. Group general counsel Brandon Foot leads the legal team to deal with legal matters and acquisitions of sports broadcasting rights for SuperSport reporting to the Naspers Video Entertainment Group CEO. The legal team is particularly skilled in the areas of sport and legal functions, acquisition of sports broadcasting rights, media rights and commercial and sports law. MultiChoice South Africa and the University of Pretoria also announced a partnership, intending to develop and sustain artificial intelligence, specifically machine learning technology skills in South Africa. The partnership will result in MultiChoice sponsoring a Research Chair of machine learning at the University of Pretoria. The legal team has also helped with MultiChoice's recent plans to slash the price of GOtv decoder in a way that will allow customers at the 38th Lagos International Trade Fair holding at the Tafawa Balewa Square in November 2018, an initiative that will ensure that quality entertainment is made available to customers at an affordable price.
NamPower is the national energy provider of Namibia with a core business in the generation, transmission and energy trading. It trades on the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP), the largest multilateral energy platform on the African continent. NamPower provides energy in bulk to Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs) a public distribution body, mines, farms and local authorities around Namibia. The in-house legal team, managing legal matters and keeping this vital industry running smoothly, is managed by Zoe Nambahu, chief legal adviser. It manages all commercial, energy and environmental legal matters for the company and manages the smooth operation of the Kudu gas power station, the firm's biomass project and rural electrification initiatives. Nominated for its skilled management and deft handling of matters, the NamPower legal team proves its quality time and again.
Nareva Holding is a major electricity company in Morocco, wholly owned by SNI, the Société Nationale d'Investissement, an investment company owned by the Moroccan Royal Family, and one of the largest investors in the energy sector in Morocco. Nareva's considerable operations – including renewable energy generation projects across the country, with wind and solar energy plants in Akhenfir, Haouma and Foum El Oued, Morocco – are supported at all levels by its expert legal team. This department is expertly led by Amandine Decoux, vice president legal director, and includes some of the top minds in legal commercial and corporate management in the energy sector in Morocco. The in-house team is responsible for management of the joint-ventures and other agreements with wind turbine and solar panel producers, other energy companies and distributers as well as the development of new projects and its major partnership with Tarfaya, a subsidiary of ENGIE.
Naspers is a global internet and entertainment group founded in 1915. It operates in more than 120 counties and is considered one of the largest technology investors in the world. The international legal team is led by group general counsel David Tudor, who has advised the Naspers group of companies since 1996 and currently advises on global transaction eCommerce at Naspers. The legal team has been intrinsically involved in various projects across South Africa. Most recently, in October 2018, Naspers committed R4.6bn of funding back to South African technology business, a move that required the legal team to facilitate documents and establish the "Naspers Foundry" initiative that aims to fund and support South African technology start-ups seeking to address societal needs. With a focus on the growth and development of the e-commerce sector in South Africa, the legal team has also been involved in the growing interest of merging with other leading e-commerce companies, namely facilitating an R960m investment in Takealot.com, South Africa's leading general e-tailer, making Naspers the majority shareholder. The legal team has been a core enabler of the sector continuing to grow in the business market with huge potential.
The National Bank of Egypt is the largest financial platform in Egypt and one of the largest in Africa and the Middle East. Its in-house legal team manages deals worth billions of US dollars in the infrastructure, and energy sectors, as well as handling all other legal matters for the company. Group head Mahmoud Abdellatif, is responsible for setting the strategies and the overall supervision of the department consisting of five expert lawyers. The team is involved in different critical and sensitive tasks on a daily basis, including advising on large transactions worth billions in terms of investment, financing and development; reviewing the agreements and documentations for major projects like international M&A and project finance; and serving as members of different steering committees to ensure that long term on-going projects are running smoothly. The in-house legal team based in the Egyptian headquarters handles legal matters for the Bank's subsidiaries in different parts of the world including in Africa, UAE, China, the US and the UK. It is exposed to different jurisdictions, regulatory and compliance rules including authorities outside of Egypt, such as the Financial Conduct Authority and National Crime Agency in the UK. Saad Tharwat Roshdy, senior legal counsel, says that the team has had to adapt to Egypt's economic difficulties, requiring new strategies particularly related to SME's in remote and poor areas. He said, '[the Bank] saw an opportunity in the field of the derivatives and in the securities investment by foreign nationals to utilise the benefit of the higher interest rates applicable in Egypt than their home countries. So we have modified the contracts that we use in order to seize these opportunities and this was accompanied by different strategies and approaches'. Additionally the team has made major changes in its use of technology to optimise productivity and revenue. Saad Tharwat Roshdy adds, '[the team has] changed the normal approach of in-house lawyers who were mainly concerned with indicating what the law says. We are business-oriented lawyers who adopt holistic approaches to make our business and community better and make clear that innovating is our driver. We have been the main financial pillar to the government to reform the infrastructure in Egypt and rehabilitate the highways and roads to create more investment opportunities'.
Nestlé Nigeria is part of Nestlé's Central and West African division of the Swiss multinational food and beverage company. Operating as the hub for Central and West Africa, Nestlé Nigeria manages multiple factories and production centres around the country and is one of Nigeria's largest companies. Company secretary and legal advisor Bode Ayeku, heads Nestlé Nigeria's in-house legal team providing expert advice on the commercial, contractual, regulatory and compliance necessities of Nestlé with an eye to its multijurisdictional remit. The team takes proactive steps to manage the legal risks and provide legal advice to senior management and business divisions to avoid issues and ensure compliance. They also excel in executing contracts for Nestlé's supplier and distribution agreements in the region.
Netcare Group is a holding company that operates as South Africa's largest healthcare provider. It runs the largest private hospital in South Africa, as well as a whole range of primary healthcare, emergency care, occupational health, day surgery and sub-acute care facilities. Lynelle Bagwandeen, Netcare's group company secretary and general counsel, leads the multiple industry award-winning legal team who consistently impress peers in private practice for their skill on a range of matters that affect the company. The team is responsible for Netcare's legal relationship with all of its subsidiaries, its general legal business including its listing on the JSE Socially Responsible Investment Index, and the Dow Jones index. In addition to handling the company's governance and legal requirements, the team plays a significant role on key company projects as well as its corporate social responsibility initiatives.
The in-house legal team at the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) consists of five highly skilled lawyers led by Sade Morgan, legal, public affairs and communications director, a seasoned lawyer who brings her years of experience in the corporate commercial law scene to the role. The five-strong legal team is responsible for NBC's vast operations and multiple regulatory regimes across the various Nigerian states. The team has adopted a business partnering model to ensure that every function in the company is assigned a legal business partner who takes responsibility for the provision of legal services to the relevant department. The team also undertakes regulatory monitoring to forestall business disruption and challenge arbitrary regulatory demands. From 2015 to date, the team has saved about ₦1bn in challenging arbitrary demands. The team takes proactive measures and provides solutions to legal issues. In managing risk, the team is responsible for contract management, preparing templates for contractual relationships and reviews to ensure the protection of the company's interests. For high-level agreements with potentially high exposure, the team provides support to the relevant department from negotiation until the contract's execution. Additionally, the team has efficiently handled dispute resolution which has led to a 56% reduction in the company's litigation portfolio from 2015 to date from 187 cases to 83. In 2017, NBC legal led a team of external advisers to develop a business and governance model for the establishment of a separate business division under the registered trademark name "Spirit of Hellenic" to manage its entry into the premium spirit consumer market in Nigeria with the potential to deliver additional EBIT of €5m in three years. Morgan says, 'Every member of the team is recognised as an expert in his or her own rights and is cherished by the various functions he or she supports as a valuable business partner. The legal team is an integral member of all business projects and initiatives; easily accessible and always willing to provide support beyond legal services'.
Founded in 1960, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) services the largest economy in Africa and is an automated exchange providing listing and trading services, as well as electronic clearing, settlement and delivery services. As a core part of an organisation at the heart of accelerating Africa's economic development, NSE's in-house legal department have been central to providing high quality legal advice. The legal team is led by general counsel and head legal services department Irene Robinson-Ayanwale, who joined in September 2013 in the capacity of legal adviser, head of legal department and was promoted to her current role in August 2018. Overseeing the legal details behind trading on shares of various large companies, the legal department has to ensure that accounts comply with all applicable rules, simultaneously securing relationships with businesses in a volatile financial environment and staying on top of stringent regulatory and legislative changes.
Novartis is a global name in the healthcare industry, producing and marketing drugs and therapies and providing expert healthcare consulting and other services across the world. Vivian N. Osayande, head of legal for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMA) operations, leads the highly decorated legal team at Novartis. The team consists of some of the top lawyers in the industry across the entire geographic span of the department. Based in Switzerland, but with responsibility for Africa among its other remits, the in-house legal team managed by Osayande is responsible for providing support to significant litigations, arbitrations and investigations in Africa. In particular it is working on legal support for the commercial deal review committee, the regional franchise teams, regional medical affairs teams and the Novartis health alliance.
The expert in-house legal department at Oando, made up of ten lawyers and an insurance advisor, is led by chief legal officer Ngozi Janice Okonkwo, who also oversees an insurance advisor. It manages the company's corporate and commercial legal affairs including its subsidiaries including, litigation, due diligence, tax, contracts and other legal opinion crucial to the management of the business. The department has changed in size and composition in the last couple of years due to divestments of the group's subsidiaries in its downstream, midstream and oil services businesses. Okonkwo identifies that, 'the divestments provided a unique opportunity for the team's development of highly specialised transaction skills as some of the features of the downstream divestment in particular were novel in Nigeria. The department has shown its ability to do more and beyond the ambit of core legal work'. In February 2018, the legal department solely managed the divestment of one of the group's private air planes which included corporate finance, risk and basic accounting. Since 2016, new members have been added to the team to address increasing demand for legal services within the group. The department has since become even more efficient and deploys technology for most administrative tasks as well as software to improve legal research and development. A major achievement for the legal team was advising on the completion of the sale of Oando's entire participating interest in OML 125 and 134 to Nigerian Agip Exploration at the end of 2017. The scope of the legal team's services included the review of the sale and purchase agreement, regular project updates, risk management and drafting of other documentation, all without support from external counsel, saving the company at least US$100,000 in legal fees. Okonkwo identifies the strengths of the team: 'the department's core ethos is ensuring corporate long term sustainability through the provision of professional, quality, efficient and timely legal services. We focus on the "wow" factor and ensuring that we consistently exceed expectations'.
As the first mobile network operator in Egypt, founded in 1998, Orange provides voice and data exchange services, as well as 4G, 3G and broadband internet. The legal team lead all legal and regulatory affairs and is led by general counsel Rania Gharib, who has over 18 years in the field of telecommunication laws and regulation, competition laws, governmental relations, consumer protection and dispute resolution. Considered an asset to the legal team, nominators said, 'she has helped to shape the legal and regulatory environment of the telecommunication industry in the Egyptian market'. In 2012, the legal team worked on acquiring 94% of Mobinil, buying most of the shares from its venture partner Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT), favourably executing its purchase of 93.9 million shares of the 100 million outstanding at a pre-agreed price, totalling a transaction value of US$90m. The legal team also subsequently worked on Mobinil officially rebranding to Orange in March 2016. Integral to its transformation in the sector, the legal department also assisted in the accomplishment of the fourth-generation 4G internet services license after signing a US$484m agreement with the national telecom reader. The department was involved in talks with the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), which resulted in the agreement to provide Orange with new terms to increase the internet speed of 4G to 2x10 MHz for mobile phones.
'The North and West Africa legal department is a small team known to be business-oriented and with the ability to effectively balance business interests against mitigating potential legal risks while protecting the values of the department and the company', as legal director Houda Soula succinctly puts. As well as union negotiations, legal monitoring of business acquisitions, participation in private and public initiatives and a number of memorandums of understanding that the team has been successful in enabling, Soula explains that a team culture has also been developed – an impressive achievement given the team has only been in existence for a relatively short time. In addition to herself, Soula mentions Mouna Chetoui as a key team performer over recent months: 'She has been providing critical support to the internal clients, and was the key local contact for Regional leaders in implementing local projects. Throughout this period, Mouna has shown a high degree of integrity and proved herself to be very reliable'. Prior to Pfizer, Soula herself was area legal counsel for oil and gas company Weatherford, bringing this valuable experience to the Pfizer North and West Africa legal team's ranks.
Pioneer Foods is one of the largest fast moving consumer goods companies in Southern Africa, with a presence across South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Nigeria. It is a major institution in the grocery market with thousands of locations, a vibrant export market to over 60 countries, and production of essential foods and grains in wholesale and retail. Jay-Ann Jacobs, group legal and company secretary, leads the in-house legal team which expertly handles all legal affairs of the multi-national grocery giant, with particular attention to the multi-jurisdictional concerns of the company through its international export business. They have excelled on legal matters pertaining to supply chain contracts, international commercial agreements and international joint-ventures which make up 21% of the Group's operating profit.
The expert and highly professional in-house legal team at the Sub-Saharan Africa global business unit of Procter & Gamble (P&G) delivers top quality advice on all commercial, corporate and regulatory matters for the company. A leader in the consumer goods sector, P&G produces a large variety of iconic brands in the industry. Each global business unit produces, markets and organises updates of its own region's products requiring autonomy in decision making and corporate governance management. The legal team in Sub-Saharan Africa therefore has a wide remit, which it handles with skill and poise. In particular, the team works on legal elements for the development of blockchain technology in the construction and engineering sectors particularly with regard to plant equipment.
Proparco is the private sector financing arm of France's inclusive public development bank, Agence Française de Développement (AFD). For over 40 years Proparco has supported development in Southern African countries and plays a key role in the French cooperation mechanism of financing and support for projects led by financial institutions and companies in emerging countries. Based in France, the legal function of Proparco is involved in a number of projects across Africa. As general counsel of the organisation, Catherine Bareyre leads the legal department to deal with a number of matters including restructuring and financing transactions. Given the international scope of Poparco's operations, its legal team is replete with high calibre in-house lawyers who hold cross jurisdictional expertise. The legal department has assisted in the recent granting of a €90m loan to the Ivorian company Sifca for a series of development projects, including a 46MW biomass power plant in South East Ivory Coast.
Water utility company Rand Water operates with the simple vision of being an industry leader and partner of choice in sustainable bulk water services. It supplies potable water to the Guateng province of South Africa and other areas of the country and is the largest water utility in Africa. Rand Water's legal department is led by legal manager Thabisa Mange who brings her commercial legal background to the legal department, and guides them in expediting major projects concerning the construction of several large dams and pipeline transporting water projects. The legal department gives advice on schemes designed to deliver a large amount of water to certain areas in line with the company's key fundamentals of the government's development strategy. The team has also helped the company create partnerships with various municipalities to implement projects aimed at reducing water losses from leaking plumbing installations – a pressing challenge facing inhabitants.
As Africa's largest urban land developer, Rendeavour has over 12,000 hectares of visionary projects in the structural growth trajectories of the main cities in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo. The company's legal department play a crucial role in facilitating the company's creation of infrastructure and its development of living and working spaces, communities, schools and hospitals, which help sustain and accelerate Africa's economic growth. Legal counsel, Adejoke Odocha possesses a broad-based and cross-geographical background, and leads the legal team to handle various complex transactions in Nigeria. The legal department review and negotiate service agreements for use in Nigeria and other countries in the Gulf of Guinea, helping advise on varied commercial and corporate legal matters. Amongst their most impressive structural projects, Tatu City is a 5,000-acre, mixed-use development with homes, schools, offices, a shopping district, medical clinics, nature areas, a sport and entertainment complex and manufacturing area for more than 150,000 residents. The legal team have been behind the approval of this particular project, negotiating mitigating factors and essentially enabling the creation of a unique environment that will substantially benefit the community, easing traffic congestion and long-distance commuting. The nature of the sector requires the legal team to keep on top of regulatory and trade compliance advisory services, taking part in regular training on ethics and compliance, with anti-corruption legislation including the FCPA.
Incorporated in 1956, RioZim was set up initially to develop and mine the Empress Nickel deposit in the Midlands, and was the first mining operation to be set up outside of Europe by Rio Tinto. RioZim separated from Rio Tinto in 2004 and became a wholly owned Zimbabwean company that produces gold, coal, and refines nickel and copper. The company is also listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The legal department has proved crucial in its adherence to world class ethical standards in occupational health, safety and environmental management. Zanudeen Makorie leads the legal department in the capacity of general counsel and company secretary, bringing to the company his previous experience in private practice. RioZim operates in four areas; Rio Gold, Rio Base Metals, Rio Diamonds and Rio Energy, requiring the legal team to display knowledge in all while staying on top of the disparate legal challenges that they present. The legal department provide the legal foundation to deal with a large diversified regional company, allowing it to deliver sustainable shareholder wealth from natural resources and optimising the existing business.
A division of FirstRand Bank, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) is a leading African corporate and investment bank and one of the largest financial services groups in Africa. Featured in the GC Powerlist: Africa Teams 2016, the company's legal department has continued impress in the industry and contains highly talented in-house lawyers who seamlessly oversee RMB's investment strategies in South Africa and its network of retail banks in 25 African countries. The legal function also amasses a high-level of expertise and skill in a number of areas, including laws relating to currency, commodity equity and credit risks. Rand Merchant Bank has funded several projects, requiring the legal department to advise on a number of M&As in more than 35 African countries over the past decade. In doing so, the team has gained considerable respect from private practice peers who were quick to highlight the team's glowing credentials during this year's research.
The Royal Air Maroc legal team has had a hand in all of Royal Air Maroc (RAM)'s success in recent months, displaying time and again its expertise in some highly complex projects. September 2018 saw the airline announce a major new direct route between Casablanca and Miami to become operational in March 2019 which will mark the latter's first route to Africa for many years and the state of Florida's only non-stop service to the continent. This is a major coup for Morocco's national airline and will have a knock-on effect for tourism in the country while directly showcasing it to a wider US audience, and comes as part of a general route expansion by the company which has also seen it take on new routes to the Jordan, Nigeria and Austria. A further statement of intent comes with the company's November 2017 announcement of a US$1.1bn deal to acquire four stretched -900 versions of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which will provide significant new capacity on long-haul routes.
South African financial services group Sanlam is headquartered in Bellville, Western Cape and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Namibian Stock Exchange, boasting an extensive African footprint in more than 30 African countries. The legal team is led by the newly appointed chief legal advisor, Pavel Hassim who since joining Sanlam in August 2018, brings a significant amount of legal financial experience having served as head of legal within a number of large banks in Africa such as FirstRand Bank, Imperial Bank and Nedbank. Earlier this year, the in-house legal department worked on Sanlam's acquisition of Morocco's Saham Finances, in one of the company's biggest acquisitions to further deepen its presence in 33 markets across Africa and the Middle East. Sanlam already owned 46.6% of Saham Finances but the acquisition of the remaining share will give the company access to 65 subsidiaries across Africa, a network of 700 branches, more than 3,000 employees and US$1.2bn in annual turnover.
With over 79 sites in 36 countries, Sanofi is a powerful player in the global pharmaceutical industry. The company distributes medicines and therapies to over 170 countries, covering vaccines, diabetes, cardiovascular, paediatric and public health. Headquartered in Paris with a strong French heritage, Sanofi has a large market share in Francophone Africa, but is active all over the continent. Nabiha Zerigui, head of legal for Northwest (Maghreb) and South Africa, leads the in-house legal team responsible for all legal business matters including pharmaceutical regulation, M&A, investments, partnerships, commercial and corporate law, foreign exchange regulation and investments, as well as public procurement law, labour law and more across the Maghreb and in South Africa. The highly professional multi-jurisdictional team based in Algiers is skilled in all of these areas and in the negotiation of partnerships. For example, this year Sanofi announced a partnership deal with Denali Therapeutics to create new therapies for neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases.
Maarten van Hoven leads the legal function of Sappi, having joined the company in 2011, and takes on significant senior management responsibilities in addition to this – providing a tangible legal insight into strategic business decisions and highlighting the importance of a legal outlook into the company's operation. Sappi, which is among the largest pulp and paper companies in the world and has operations around the globe, provides a fertile environment for the legal team to operate in, evidenced by a number of initiatives taken by the company in recent months. In October 2018, for example, it announced an R7.7bn project to upgrade infrastructure at its Durban paper mill, in a trend which is being repeated across its global infrastructure network; deals have also been announced in Austria and the US that will also see mills and production facilities there upgraded.
Sasol is an integrated energy and chemical company formed in South Africa in 1950. Today it is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and develops and commercialises technologies, including synthetic fuels technologies, and produces different liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity. The company's legal department successfully deals with a range of complex legal transactions in the energy market to maintain Sasol's position as a pioneer in the hydrocarbon area. They have been central to the facilitation of Sasol setting up exploration, development, production, marketing and sales operations in 36 countries across the world. In 2018, the legal department have been involved in a number of new company instalments, namely Sasol and Air Liquide inaugurating an R2.9bn air separation unit at Secunda Synfuels Operations and Sasol Mining inaugurating the Shondoni Colliery as part of its R14bn mine replacement programme.
SEACOM is a privately owned and operated pan-African ICT enabler, originally envisioned by a group of African investors in 2007 who wanted to offer a best-in-class international network. Head of legal and telecoms expert Carmen Cupido leads the legal team to deal with corporate compliance and telecoms legal policy matters. The legal team has set a high bar of providing comprehensive in-depth legal, business-focused advice to the business, implementing initiatives and processes that reinforce a culture of integrity, optimum ethical standards and responsibility across the business. It is critical that the legal team identify legal risks and implications involved in all the business's projects, frequently communicating with senior management in all departments of the business and keeping them informed of developments in regulatory matters that potentially affect business acquisitions. The team's skillset has been required for a number of projects, specifically in 2017 when it helped SEACOM acquire internet service provider, MacroLan, to extend fibre reach in the Western Cape.
Oil and gas EPC company SHI-MCI FZE offers the largest fabrication and integration facilities in Africa. Equipped with unparalleled technologies and cutting-edge facilities, the company is on the way to becoming a leader in the shipbuilding and offshore oil and gas industries around the world. The legal team provide monitored guidance and support in relevant legislation and regulatory environments, conducting legal research to keep abreast of developments in relation to the sector. In 2010 the SHI-MCI FZE introduced its compliance program which includes reflecting the circulation process in management, through a specific procedure, helping to form and implement the compliance program regulation, detailed rules, code of conduct and manual that provides rules to officers and employees, educating them to support their daily compliance activities. As well as overseeing the compliance system and ensuring responses received from regulatory bodies are efficiently dealt with, the legal team review the company's internal policies to ensure compliance with its memorandum and articles of association. A large portion of their legal activities encompass the company's ingrained philosophy of having ethics management at the forefront of the company's functionality, operating with fair and transparent corporate management. The legal team implement the SHI Ethical Constitution, basing their work on corporate ethical standards and an organised culture which they use as a tool to influence the projects surrounding the Health, Safety, Environment policy which act as a core value of the management.
State-owned enterprise Sonangol EP is dedicated to the marketing of crude oil and products with a commitment to provide high quality services that meet the highest standards of performance and offer high value primarily through teamwork and investment in personnel. Amongst its high performing personnel, the company's legal team stand out as a key asset to the company and a prime contributor to its projects within the country. The Angolan legal team is led by general counsel Tiago Neto, who has a demonstrated history of working in the oil and energy industry. The day-to-day activities of operating in the oil and energy industry has required the team to be particularly skilled in the areas of negotiation, petroleum, arbitration and corporate law, with the team utilising these skills on a number of transactions, namely the sale of oil-block, bank stakes and plans to enhance oil recovery in West Africa in the face of an offshore production decline.
The Algerian government-owned company Sonatrach is an important part of the Algerian economy, taking advantage of the country's rich hydrocarbon resources and experience in oil and gas refining. The in-house legal team is responsible for all legal matters involving the public company relating to all areas of the company's business. Hafed Nassim Stambouli, head of the international litigation department, leads the contentious work team within the central legal department. In the last year, the legal team has overseen some major transactions and deals including the opening of a new pier at the company's oil port of Skikda for the transport of liquefied natural gas, arranging the partnerships required for its construction. Additionally, the Sonatrach legal team worked on the reinforcement of the company's partnership with Total in its market of petrochemicals and petroleum products.
Currently headed by acting chief legal officer Mpati Qofa, the South African Airways legal team is renowned as one of the very best in-house legal teams operating in the aviation sector in Africa. It has, however, been operating in a non-optimal business environment as the company comes off a period of losses that has led to the state-owned company receiving a series of high-value bailout packages to secure its continue operations. The legal team has nevertheless remained extremely effective during this period and has been a major source of strength for the business during this time, having negotiated very adeptly on a number of extremely complicated and sensitive matters. The calibre of its advice has also been remarked upon by nominating sources.
South African Breweries' legal team was instrumental in what was undoubtedly the most important strategic development for the company in recent years which saw it combine businesses with global competitor AB InBev of which it is now a direct subsidiary after a US$107bn deal was struck. This monumental agreement, which was completed in October 2016, required a considerable input from the South African Breweries legal function to get over the line and is an example of the team having a major impact on the strategic direction of the organisation. Director of legal Warren Van Rooyen – who has practiced at South African Breweries for eight years prior to which he was an in-house counsel for Absa – is a key team member who has been central to most of the team's achievements in recent months.
Stanbic Bank Kenya is a major Kenyan and East African full service banking institution and one of the most important banks in the region. The bank benefits from the expertise of its legal function which is led by the talented head of legal Eliud Ogutu. The team contains other high profile individuals such as senior legal counsel Beatrice Njeru, who according to nominators is 'a key figure in investment banking in the East African region and is regarded as an authority in project finance'. The team has been involved in numerous high value project finance deals in the country including a geothermal power projects, a large coal fired power project and a 300MW wind power project. In the infrastructure space, it is actively involved in the Roads Annuity Programme, a programme by the National Government which aims to construct 10,000KM of roads under public private partnership arrangements. In addition, the team is highly skilled at general commercial and corporate law, securitisation and loan documentation, intellectual property law, and banking.
The highly accomplished and industry leading legal team at Standard Chartered Bank East Africa is led by Patricia Nyokabi Mbugua, regional head of legal, global banking and commercial banking. The team consists of three highly talented lawyers, Jane Chege and Chris Engola Otyek, both senior legal counsel who report to Mbugua in Nairobi. Chege provides dedicated support to the commercial banking (CB) segment while Otyek and Mbugua are the focal points of contact for the global banking business (GB). The team's primary focus is providing transactional support, in collaboration with legal colleagues in Uganda and Tanzania, to GB and CB business units across East Africa while remaining an integral part of the wider Africa Middle East (AME) legal team, engaging in cross-border matters beyond the East African region. It also regularly advises the recoveries team as well as financial markets (FM), transactional banking (TB), leveraged finance, structuring solutions and loan syndications, risk and control functions in close collaboration with legal colleagues. Individually the team has significant roles above its day-to-day duties. Chege is a trustee of the Standard Chartered Kenya Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme (Pension Fund) following her successful election in 2017, signifying 'tremendous respect from members of staff and raising the bar for legal beyond the normal mandate', according to Mbugua. Otyek is the Africa and Middle East representative at the Legal Innovation Forum set up by the Bank's legal management team to explore initiatives such as contract automation, artificial intelligence, and document management. The Forum aims to improve efficiencies and free up in-house counsel time to do more value-added work, demonstrating the high regard with which he is held within the Bank. Otyek has also been actively involved in industry initiatives such as the Bond Market Steering Committee discussions between the Kenyan banking sector and the Capital Markets Authority resulting in "The Capital Markets Securities Lending Borrowing and Short Selling Regulations 2017"; there is continued stakeholder engagement on the enabling infrastructure that would allow for full implementation of the law. In 2017 Mbugua was appointed to a National Task Force by the Kenyan cabinet secretary of lands and physical planning, to look into the extension and renewal of leasehold titles in Kenya. There she served as the nominated representative of the Kenya Bankers' Association, deputised the chairperson on a number of occasions and played an instrumental role in finalising the legal aspects of the report and the team's recommendations, which if implemented would fundamentally streamline the process. Mbugua says, 'our team is passionately customer-centric, commercially-minded, professional, collaborative, pragmatic, proactive, dedicated, efficient, emotionally intelligent, engaging and solution-oriented; we do not see ourselves as lawyers in the business, but businessmen and businesswomen in the law'.
Standard Chartered's presence in Nigeria dates back to the early 1960's where it had major stakes in various iterations of Standard Chartered Nigeria, and the First Bank of Nigeria, but after a period of absence the company re-entered the Nigerian banking market in 1999 opening Standard Chartered Nigeria and has thrived there ever since. Amongst the Bank's 900 staff in the country, is it's highly qualified in-house legal team. Sola Mabadeje, company secretary and head of legal, manages the skilled team which is adept in all commercial, regulatory and financial legal matters, and a leader in the upstream oil industry, advising on most of the market's major deals in the last three years. In particular, the team has worked on the Bank's first partnership with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), an infrastructure development finance institution, launched in May 2018 and predicted to generate US$350m through the investment project's three year lifetime.
October 2018 saw a major success for the Thales Africa legal team, as it successfully negotiated approval with South Africa's Competition Commission for the long-anticipated €4.65bn acquisition by the company of digital security company Gemalto. This antitrust approval, the seventh of 15 needed by the company worldwide to complete the deal, is a major step towards the completion of this strategically important acquisition by the company, and has earned the South Africa-based Thales legal team plaudits from the wider group as well as African in-house legal press and other interested observers. Head of legal and contracts management and company secretary Hazel Mngomezulu was highlighted by nominators as a key performer within the team who has had a major impact in all of the team's success in recent months.
Tiger Brands is a major South African based global fast moving consumer goods company. Founded in 1921 and formerly named Tiger Oats, the company has manufacturing centres in Nigeria, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Chile and Peru in addition to its facilities in South Africa. The expert in-house legal team is led by chief legal officer Thiroshnee Naidoo, who was appointed in May 2015 and has over 16 years' experience as a corporate counsel in the consumer goods industry in Africa. Tiger Brands faces a wide variety of legal issues and works on many legal matters ranging from commercial dispute resolution, contracts, numerous regulatory frameworks, and compliance matters. The legal team is highly adept at facing down these risks and preventing escalation.
Since 1954, Total South Africa has become a major presence in the energy provision industry in South Africa, as it has across the globe, having 510 service stations across the country and the sale of fuels, lubricants, gas, bitumen and agro-chemicals. Operatng in all elements of the sector from exploration and production, refining chemicals, marketing services, renewable energy and trading and shipping provides a wealth of work for its highly-regarded in-house legal team, which is led by general manager, legal and governance, and company secretary Natachia Moorgas. The team carries out all legal matters involved in the energy sector in South Africa and beyond, from mitigating legal risk with new ventures, environmental legal compliance, insurance, and all contractual and employment matters. The team expertly handles the growth of the sector in South Africa and helps to make sure that the company operates smoothly, and consistently performs at the top of the industry.
Since the initial agreement between Italian energy giant ENI and the Tunisian government in 1977 and the opening of the joint pipeline in 1983, the Trans Tunisian Pipeline Company has been ensuring the transportation of natural gas from Oued Saf-Saf, Algeria through Tunisia to the coast near Cap Bon, and across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy via a submarine pipeline. Its in-house legal team is led by Chahed Redissi, legal manager with over 20 years of experience. The team handles all energy and environmental legal matters as well as commercial and contractual negotiations, disputes and other legal support work including pre-emptively addressing problems and reducing their impact. The team is highly adept at multi-jurisdictional work, navigating the Italian, Tunisian and Algerian legal systems as well as others through its sales and services across the region.
Tullow Oil is a major independent African oil company operating in Ghana and other parts of West Africa, East Africa, Pakistan, Brazil and the UK with its headquarters in London, UK. Founded in a small Irish town named Tullow in 1986, the company focused on small productions of oil in West Africa and has since grown to become one of the largest independent oil companies in the world with more than 80 exploration and production licences across 16 countries. The in-house legal team, based in London, is responsible for the smooth operation of the company through multi-jurisdictional, regulatory and commercial territories. The team is adept at these challenges and is a major component in the company's continued success, exemplified by Tullow Oil in 2017 succeeding in generating US$543m free cash flow and reducing its company debt to US$3.5bn. The company also, with the assistance of its legal team, carried out a rights issue of US$750m, expanded operations in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire and launched two new oil fields in Kenya, the Amosing and Ngamia fields.
The Unilever Ghana-Nigeria cluster legal department operates a business partnering model comprising of six lawyers and one non-lawyer embedded within different business divisions under the supervision of Abidemi Ademola, the general counsel and company secretary who leads the legal team in handling various complex legal transactions in Nigeria and Ghana. Prior to 2017 the legal teams in Ghana and Nigeria were distinct and separate; however, following a Africa-wide restructure in 2017, Unilever's Ghanaian and Nigerian operations were consolidated into a single cluster. The legal teams in Ghana and Nigeria were successfully integrated and became the Ghana-Nigeria legal team with effect from January 2017. The integration led to a number of positives such as the exchange of best practices, expansion in the scope of the lawyers' knowledge and skills and positive cross-country legal initiatives and synergies. The legal department has since become the business unit's go-to division, providing tailored legal advice to enable informed business decisions. 'The lawyer is also the legal eyes and conscience for that unit, looking out for legal risks, advising and acting to mitigate risks', explains Ademola. Furthermore, in 2016 the legal team revamped the Unilever Ghana-Nigeria contracting process by introducing an integrated contract management policy, detailing and streamlining the end-to-end contract management process. As a further improvement, in 2017 the team implemented a technology based contracting model, which involves outsourcing the drafting of routine contracts to a third-party legal service provider. With this contracting model, the business manager is solely in charge of end-to-end contract documentation of specified routine contracts, ensuring that lawyers have more time for other high level work, ensuring that the process is simplified and efficient as well as encouraging better contract compliance and obligation management. The legal team has also been central to a number of key transactions. For instance, in December 2017 the Unilever Group received a binding offer from KKR to purchase Unilever's global baking, cooking and spreads business for over €6.8bn on a cash-free and debt-free basis. As members of the Group, Unilever Ghana and Unilever Nigeria were required to separately sell their spreads business (Blue Band margarine) to KKR locally, as part of the global deal. During this move, the legal department drafted the local contract documentation with KKR, managed critical internal and external stakeholders – directors, shareholders and regulators – and provided legal direction and advice on the exit of certain employees to join KKR, as well the management of existing Unilever customers. The team impressed a number of private practice peers for their efforts in this regard to this major deal.
Starting its operations in the country in 1891, Unilever has offices and manufacturing locations across South Africa. Its South African legal team is overseen by general counsel Africa, Kim Morgan-Verlaque who manages the legal function in its aim of assisting the company in compliantly offering nutrition and personal care products across Africa. Through helping form and negotiate a number of partnerships and mergers, the legal team have been central to the company's development in the continent and its aims to make a positive impact through its brands, commercial operations and global relationships. Compliance with business integrity and competition law is an essential element in the Unilever business' success and it is in this area that the legal department has excelled in, gaining the credit of private practice peers in the process.
Unitel is Angola's largest mobile phone, internet broadband and telecommunications provider. It was founded in 2001 and is seen as a major success story in the country's recent economic development. The company is based in Luanda, Angola's capital, and its network's coverage reaches the entire country. Tidiane Santos, legal bureau manager, leads the legal team focused on the company's legal business, its development and all risk and compliance management. The company is heavily involved in community outreach and development initiatives including health, literacy, arts and culture, and economic development programs around the country. Specifically, the company has announced its United Academy is certified as a Cisco Networking Academy by the Telecommunications Institute (IMIL) to train students to become Cisco Certified Network Associates, and Cisco Certified Internet Experts, and develop professional skills. Additionally, the legal team has worked on legal matters pertaining to the launch of Unitel's new app, allowing for mobile account management and facilitate digital payments.
Vodacom is a household name in the telecoms industry across Sub-Saharan Africa, and is a leading African communications company operating in South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya. Based in South Africa, Vodacom offers mobile voice, internet, messaging, data and telecommunication services and finance to over 103 million customers including its subsidiary Safaricom. Vodacom is majority-owned by international communications giant Vodafone. The in-house legal team is led by Nkateko Nyoka, chief officer legal and regulatory, and is highly experienced in the telecoms industry and adept at its commercial as well as regulatory aspects and corporate governance. Reaching over 284 million people, Vodacom has one of the largest networks in Africa, and has recently announced the roll-out of its new 5G Commercial service in Lesotho. Additionally, it has launched new enhanced voice service "Super HD Voice" and a number of other new products and initiatives.
Woolworths has been an institution in the South African retail market since the 1930's, and has a large market share within South Africa as part of its global footprint. The legal team in South Africa is responsible for all of Woolworth's markets within Africa and covers all aspects of company operations including the retail stores, real estate, supply chain, logistics, IT, marketing, finance, corporate affairs and HR. This diverse responsibility is handled deftly by a highly experienced legal team of over ten members with specialist talent in legal strategy and risk implementation. The team is also involved in internal legal training for the firm, preparation of legal documentation, M&A activities, and litigation management. After a period of restructuring, Woolworths appointed a new head of legal in July 2018, Anton Manshon, a highly experienced and financially-minded general counsel, who will ensure the team continues to provide excellent service.
Grant Henderson
Director, Africa
DLA Piper is delighted to once more sponsor the GC Powerlist Africa Teams. It is a benchmark for excellence and it plays a critical role in recognising the general counsels and their teams that are driving the African legal profession forward. We congratulate you for being featured on the list for 2018.
In the last 12 months Africa has not stood still. Whether it be in terms of new political leaders, shifts in macro-economics, or changes in legislation, all of these impact the way that businesses operate. What impacts on business inevitably also impacts on your role. Navigating these changes still need the more traditional, reactive side to the role, but increasingly you are becoming strategic business advisors.
What this means today is that you are expected to provide businesses with commercially driven solutions, contribute to business strategy, support leadership in the execution of business plans, ask tough questions, be an ethical sounding board, and promote good governance and compliance throughout the business. Many of you are facing mountainous workloads as you take on a more pro-active, guardian-esque role on behalf of your organisation's leadership, and this requires a very practical, pragmatic approach to the tasks that cross your desk. At the core, this could not have been done without the support from general counsel, legal departments and in-house counsel that not only help in delivering on business expectations, but also act as a sounding board behind the scenes.
Maintaining a constant watch on the changes happening in country, and across the continent, is a real challenge. You are expected to assess the potential business implications, then present valuable insights to your boards and leaderships, revealing the possible scenarios, and making recommendations as to the best way forward for the business. As trusted advisors to your CEOs you are having to make quick strategic decisions daily that often have significant implications for the business. When the business wants an answer, it is you that must assess the risks, and question whether the business can survive the consequences of the recommendation you make, and then you have to stand by your call.
You can only do this if you can trust the advice you have been given, as advisors that means we need to understand your business, ensure our information is relevant, gives perspective, is legally sound, is on time, and, of course, stays within budget! We also know that you do not have time to read volumes of information, so advice needs to be not only on point but succinct. As external counsels we need to step up and ask how we can help you. We also need to make sure that we keep on reminding you ahead of time that you need to give the necessary feedback, documents, or briefs, because your focus is split on a hundred different things.
Whilst we are seeing leapfrogging technologies being pioneered in the business world in Africa, for example mobile money payment systems and micro grid battery storage technology we are also seeing it impact the legal profession. Over the last decade technological developments in the legal sector have resulted in Artificial Intelligence (AI) based dispute resolution tools such as e-discovery, technology assisted review (TAR), online dispute resolution, and the advent of smart contracts among others. Today, the development of and incorporation of automation, and AI-based technologies into a business, whether in-house, or through external legal support. Not only is this enabling greater efficiencies and time savings but is changing the very way we approach and deliver our work.
By embracing the efficiencies offered by technology, you are able to free up more of your valuable time for strategic pursuits. This will enable ever further contributions to your organisations and the enhancement of your roles and positions as leaders and trusted advisor to your boards, and chief executives. Those legal teams that are making the best use of these technologies are already featuring on the GC Powerlist and in the years to come we can expect this trend to continue.
Congratulations once again for being recognised as the leading legal teams in Africa!
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