Baker McKenzie Archives - AfricaBusiness.com

12Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Africa-focused Banking & Finance team from Baker McKenzie advised on one of Global Trade Review’s Best Deals 2022

Baker McKenzie's Africa-focused Banking & Finance team advised on one of Global Trade Review's (GTR) Best Deals 2022 . The team advised Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited and certain of its subsidiaries (Aspen Group) on this winning deal, which comprised a joint financing package for the amount of €600 million (around ZAR 10 billion) that was finalised by the IFC, the French Development institution PROPARCO, the German development finance institution DEG and the United States (US) international Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The transaction was finalised in 2021. Baker McKenzie's Financial Institutions team in South Africa, led by Partner and Head of Banking & Finance in Johannesburg, Lodewyk Meyer, advised the Aspen Group in relation to a common terms agreement, a term lo...

11Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Tech

Lawyers across Africa comment on the continent’s urgent need for data privacy and security law

The pandemic has driven home the high value of personal data to the global economy, while also highlighting its vulnerability to abuse and attack. In response, governments around the world, including those in Africa, have been reviewing their data privacy and protection laws and regulations to ensure they are adequately protected. Lawyers in Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe recently commented on this issue in Baker McKenzie’s new Africa Data Security and Privacy Guide. According to Enid Baaba Dadzie, Senior Associate at Kimathi & Partners in Ghana, the African Union has adopted the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection (also known as the Malabo Convention). This Convention encourages AU member states to...

18Nov

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Main

Ten reasons to consider African trade and investment opportunities in 2022

By Lerisha Naidu, Partner, Competition & Antitrust; Lodewyk Meyer, Partner, Banking and Finance; Mike van Rensburg, Partner, M&A; and Virusha Subban, Partner, Customs and Trade, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg 1. Visible green shoots – rising commodity prices The pandemic closed borders and stopped trade, other than for essentials, across the continent and was the principal reason for a decline in investment in 2020. A lack of available capital and acquisition finance, as well as difficulties pricing deals in an uncertain market, also affected investment. Other reasons for declining investment, included that the levels of economic activity have slowed in the major African economies, such as Nigeria and South Africa. However, green shoots are visible and market fundamentals are sig...

16Nov

By Virusha SubbanNo Comments

Ethiopia News, Guinea News, Main, Mali News

African Growth and Opportunity Act eligibility requirements under review in three African countries

By Virusha Subban, Partner and Head of Indirect Tax, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg On 2 November 2021, US President Joe Biden announced that three African countries would be terminated from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preference program, unless they took urgent action to meet statutory eligibility criteria by 1 January 2022. The three countries listed were Guinea, Mali and Ethiopia. The US administration cited unconstitutional changes in governments in Guinea and Mali and human rights violations in Ethiopia, due to conflict in the country, as reasons for the termination. The statement announced the intention to provide all three countries with a clear benchmark and pathway towards reinstatement so that valued trading partnerships could be resumed. AGOA eligibility c...

21Oct

By Angelo TzarevskiNo Comments

Main

Increasing competition policy enforcement across Africa

By Angelo Tzarevski, Associate Director, and Zareenah Rasool, Candidate Attorney, Competition & Antitrust Practice, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg Competition policy continues to be viewed by regulators as a key driver of economic growth globally. Across Africa, competition policy enforcement is increasingly being employed as a tool to boost economic performance and promote the revitalization of trade and industry following the devastating impact of COVID-19. The effects of the pandemic have led to negative economic growth in a number of African jurisdictions, and have given rise to opportunistic, anticompetitive behaviours such as unreasonable price increases and price gouging, coordination amongst competitors, and other unsavoury business practices that erode competition. Over the pas...

18Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Creating a disruption-proof supply chain in Africa

The impact of the pandemic on global supply chains has prompted governments around the world to look at ways to fix the broken links. In Africa, the launch of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), has provided the continent with new opportunities to strengthen its regional supply chain. Virusha Subban, Head of Indirect Tax at Baker McKenzie in South Africa, explains that there were massive breakages in key links in global supply chains during and after the pandemic, with issues including, among many other things, route congestion and blockages, manufacturing shutdowns, a deficit of skilled labour, a global shortage of key logistics components including shipping containers, a lack of space in warehouses, a spike in transportation costs and substantially increased demand for goods a...

17Oct

By Denny Da SilvaNo Comments

Kenya News, Main, Nigeria News, South Africa News

New global tax rules will help address imbalances in tax revenue in Africa

By Denny Da Silva, Associate Director, Tax, Baker McKenzie, Johannesburg One hundred and thirty six of the 140 members of the OECD G20 Inclusive Framework, including South Africa, have agreed on a new set of global tax rules that will reform the world’s tax system. Notably, two African countries that are members of the Inclusive Framework have not yet joined the agreement - Kenya and Nigeria. The two-pillar system will be presented to the G20 Leaders’ Summit at the end of October 2021. It will result in a reallocation of taxing rights from resident to source countries of certain multinational enterprises (MNEs), if thresholds are met, in addition to a 15% global minimum tax rate for certain organizations, implemented from 2023. The agreement aims to redress global tax revenue imbalances a...

17Sep

By Virusha SubbanNo Comments

Main

China’s trade with the continent grows to record highs

By Virusha Subban, Partner and Head of Indirect Tax at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, trade between China and Africa increased by 40.5 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2021, and was valued at a record high of USD 139.1 billion. The Ministry noted that African products were increasingly being recognised in the Chinese market, and that imports from Africa into China increased by 46.3% between January and July 2021. Further, the import of agricultural products, such as rubber, cotton and coffee from Africa into China doubled when compared to the first seven months of 2020. Data from the Ministry further revealed that over the last 20 years, China's trade with Africa has risen 20-fold, showing that China is Africa's biggest bilater...

19Jul

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Business, Kenya News, Nigeria News, South Africa News

Deal value increases in South Africa and Nigeria in the first half of this year

Baker McKenzie’s latest analysis of Refinitiv data shows that the value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first half 2021 (H1 2021) soared in South Africa, and that deal value also increased in Nigeria in the first six months of 2021, but Kenya experienced a slight decrease in both deal value and volume in H1 2021. South Africa The value of M&A transactions in South Africa in H1 2021 amounted to USD 52 billion, with 169 deals announced in the period. Compared to the first half of 2020, transactions volumes decreased by 8% but deal value increased by 958% in the first half of 2021. Refinitiv data shows that the volume of domestic transactions increased slightly to 80 deals, a 10% increase year on year (Y-o-Y). Domestic transactions in South Africa in H1 21 were worth USD 46....

16Jul

By Pomy KetemaNo Comments

Main

Decentralised finance may be the panacea for filling Africa’s Investment Gap

by Pomy Ketema, Counsel, Baker McKenzie, New York African countries continue to face substantial financing gaps as they take on projects of all sizes in pursuit of development. To tackle the slowdown in foreign direct investment since the onset of the pandemic, some African countries are actively courting their diaspora and looking for pockets of cash-rich businesses around the continent. Each country is on its own development trajectory. However, continental and regional initiatives, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), are being harnessed as broad-based wealth-creation vehicles. The AfCFTA, which took effect on January 1, 2021, aims to create an integrated continental market by reducing trade barriers among its 54 signatory countries. The trading pact is still under ...