Legal deals of the week (April 10, 2019)
AS&H in co-operation with CC advises PIF on the sale of its 70 per cent shareholding in SABIC to Saudi Aramco; Eversheds Sutherland advises iMENA Group and founders on sale of JRD Group.
AS&H in co-operation with Clifford Chance advises Public Investment Fund on the sale of its 70 per cent shareholding in SABIC to Saudi Aramco.
Abuhimed Alsheikh Alhagbani Law Firm (AS&H) in co-operation with Clifford Chance advised Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, on the sale of its 70 per cent shareholding in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for USD 69.1 Billion to Saudi Aramco.
SABIC, with global operations in over 50 countries and consolidated production volume across its various business units of 75 million metric tons, recorded net income of USD5.7 billion, annual sales of USD 45 billion, and total assets of USD85 billion in 2018.
The transaction will unlock significant capital for PIF’s continued long-term investment strategy in line with the goals and ambitions of the Kingdom as part of Vision 2030.
The share purchase agreement was signed on March 27, 2019. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
The team was led by Mansoor Alhagbani (AS&H Partner, head of capital arkets, Riyadh) and Omar Rashid (Clifford Chance partner seconded to AS&H as AS&H co-head of corporate) and supported by Rizwan Butt (senior associate) and Mashael Al-Shebaiky (associate).
A team of M&A, anti-trust and banking and finance specialists from the firm’s Riyadh and London teams are also advising on the different aspects of the transaction, including a core team of partners comprising Guy Norman, Yasser Al-Hussain, Gareth Camp and Nelson Jung and associates including Michael Rueter and Reema Al-Hamoud.
Mansoor Alhagbani commented, “We are proud to have advised PIF on this truly landmark transaction for the Kingdom and the region. This work reflects our strong corporate and capital markets practices in Saudi Arabia. It is also a testament to the strength of our team in Riyadh that we were able to respond to a challenging timeline and at the same time, deal with numerous complex issues that arose during this transaction. We would like to thank PIF for putting their trust and confidence in our team on such an important mandate”.
Omar Rashid remarked, “We are proud to have successfully supported PIF on this strategic and transformational transaction for the Kingdom and the Middle East region and look forward to continuing to support them to achieve a successful closing for this historic deal”.
AS&H in co-operation with Clifford Chance regularly advises Saudi and international clients on key corporate and ECM transactions and mandates and recently advised SABB on its USD 5 billion statutory merger with Al-Awwal Bank, Sahara on its proposed business merger with Sipchem, Tenaris on its acquisition of a majority stake in Saudi Steel Pipe Company, NADEC on its acquisition of Al-Safi Danone as well as Savola Group on Saudi Arabia’s first accelerated book-built block trade.
Eversheds Sutherland advises iMENA Group and founders on sale of JRD Group
Eversheds Sutherland has advised iMENA Group, Alex Nicholas and Siddharth Singh (the founders) on the sale of JRD Group to Property Finder. As part of the transaction, iMENA Group will fully exit its investment in JRD Group while Nicholas and Singh will stay on board and become shareholders of Property Finder.
JRD Group was founded in 2008 as a software enterprise dedicated passionately to innovating real estate technology. Based in Dubai, JRD Group owns and operates real estate portals across the MENA region under the JustProperty.com umbrella and a proprietary enterprise real estate software platform, PropSpace.com, for brokers, property managers and developers.
The deal is expected to close after customary conditions have been met.
The Eversheds Sutherland team was led by Dubai-based partner Iwan Walters who was supported by Dubai-based associate Ramzi Noursi.
