Law firm highlights
– Dentons addressed a gathering of Islamic finance practitioners at the IFN Forum: Turkey 2014 held recently in Istanbul. The annual forum was first held in 2009 and presents an ideal platform for those looking to engage in both the Middle East and European markets.
Dentons’ capital markets partner, Alex Roussos, participated in an engaging panel discussion which explored the funding of infrastructure and power projects, in Turkey and the wider region, through Shar'iah compliant project financing. There are significant opportunities across the region given the continued investment in infrastructure projects and the panellists explored the financing trends across Sukuk, infrastructure and project finance. Dentons also recently led discussions on the topic at the inaugural IFN Global Forum in Dubai. The Islamic finance industry is moving from strength to strength and these kind of events are crucial to the growth of the industry.
In addition, Dentons also hosted over 120 representatives from the biggest Chinese contracting companies operating overseas at a one day event in Chengdu. The event was co-hosted with the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA) and the Ministry of Commerce in Sichuan (MOFCOM). It focused on successful project management in the Middle East, which presents enormous growth opportunities for Chinese contractors.
-Simmons & Simmons celebrated two decades of providing world class legal services to the UAE. The Abu Dhabi office, which was established in 1994, celebrated with a commemorative event for clients and staff at the Rosewood Hotel. After achieving huge success in Abu Dhabi, Simmons & Simmons opened in Doha in 2003 and in Dubai in 2007. This is the second celebration for the firm and their Middle East offices this month after the official opening of a second office in Saudi Arabia as part of their alliance with Hammad Al Mehdar which began in 2011. Senior partner, Colin Passmore, took the opportunity to publicly thank and congratulate the team, who have represented some of the biggest organisations in the UAE during their 20 years of operation.
– Xona Partners teamed up with Dentons to host an event to explore cloud computing trends across the ME region. The event took place in Dubai and welcomed an assembly of professionals from a variety of industries who gathered to discuss the key market trends and legal issues regarding the growing data centre and cloud computing market in the MENA region.
Cloud computing is a market that is gaining fast popularity and is predicted to grow at 32.8 per cent every year by 2020 in the gulf region. There are several important legal challenges for suppliers as well as users of data centres and cloud computing including privacy laws, data security, service levels, liability, software licensing and exit strategies. All these topics were discussed at the event.
Dr. Riad Hartani, partner at Xona Partners commented: "The development of data centres and cloud computing across the MENA region had progressed at varying rates. We anticipate continued growth over the next five years in the most advanced markets, driven by co-location and hosting needs, as well as cloud services in specific hub cities. The growth has been mostly incumbent Telco led with a few select specialist players also entering the market. We also foresee large global players progressively entering the markets, creating interesting M&A and competitive dynamics."
– The fifth META Projects Conference took place in Dubai and Eversheds was one of the sponsors at the event. As a member of the META Projects Steering Committee, partner Tim Armsby along with Michelle Davies, head of the firm’s clean energy and sustainability group, joined a panel of leading experts in the field to discuss the implications of renewable energy policies and legislation across the region. The event brought together government officials, developers, financiers and investors including Shurooq, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Khatif Holding Co from the Middle East, Enerjisa and Otoyol Yatirim ve Işletme from Turkey, and Eskom, KenGen and African Development Bank from Africa to discuss the latest market trends and opportunities for projects across the META region.
– Juridia Bützow, one of Finland’s leading law firms, joined Eversheds from 3rd November, 2014, and will be called JB Eversheds. This association brings Eversheds population to 57 offices in 31 countries across EMEA and Asia. These include strategic locations across Central, Eastern and Western Europe; seven offices in the ME and seven offices in Africa working closely with a network of 37 firms in the Eversheds Africa Law Institute. Eversheds also has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing and is renowned for providing leading multinationals including Tyco, IATA, and Pentair with a full multi-jurisdictional legal service offering.
