International law firm Clyde & Co is pleased to announce the lateral appointments of Rhys Lewis and Ross Barfoot as partners in its MENA corporate group, bringing regional corporate partner numbers to 12 and total regional partner numbers to 36.
Rhys Lewis joins the firm’s Dubai office from Holman Fenwick & Willan in Dubai. He brings more than 15 years regional experience and extensive expertise in the defence and security sectors having acted for major international security organisations and defence contractors across the Middle East and North Africa region. His practice spans a wide range of areas including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, consortium bids and strategic finance.
Rhys commented: “I have been seeing a steady increase in transactional activity across a number of sectors and in my view Clyde & Co are exceptionally well placed to capitalise on this trend with a strong corporate platform, impressive critical mass and a solid regional footprint. I very much look forward to being a part of this.”
Ross Barfoot joins Clyde & Co’s Abu Dhabi office from Trowers & Hamlins in Abu Dhabi. He has spent the last 5 years in the region advising both international and regional corporates on a mix of corporate advisory, M&A, private equity, restructuring, corporate governance and joint venture work. Ross has a particular focus on the energy, media and education sectors.
Commenting on his appointment, Ross said: “Clyde & Co have one of the largest corporate practices in the region and an enviable track record of high level regional and cross border corporate transactions. It is an exciting firm to be joining and one which compliments my own corporate practice. Although the Abu Dhabi market remains a challenging one, there are corporate deals to be done here as well as regionally.”
Niall O’Toole, corporate partner, head of Clyde & Co’s Abu Dhabi office, and MENA board member said of the appointments: “We are delighted to welcome Ross and Rhys to our regional corporate practice, both of which have considerable experience across the region and deep knowledge in a number of our key sectors. This is what our clients want, expertise, reach and a no nonsense approach, I am confident that Ross and Rhys tick all of these boxes and more.”
Transactions that Clyde & Co’s MENA corporate team have recently worked on include advising Thomson Reuters on the acquisition of Zawya, KSA based Northern Region Cement on its 300% oversubscribed IPO, and Varkey Group on the sale of its stake in Emirates Healthcare Holdings to JSE listed Mediclinic International.
Clyde & Co has five MENA region offices operating as a single unit: Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the UAE; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; and Tripoli in Libya. The firm formalised its presence in the Middle East in 1989 after many years of client activity, and today has over 300 staff in the region.
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