Squire Patton Boggs expands in Dubai
Douglas G. Smith, Tomas Cerdan
Squire Patton Boggs announced that Douglas G. Smith has joined the firm’s Global Corporate Practice Group as of counsel in the Dubai office, at the same time as new corporate associate Radwa Al-Rifai. In addition, Financial Services partner Tomas Cerdan is transferred from the firm’s London office to Dubai last month. The moves give a significant boost to Squire Patton Boggs’ capabilities in corporate, commercial and financial services expertise in the region.
Douglas Smith joins from Jakarta-based law firm SSEK. Prior to his work in Indonesia, he was based in Dubai as Head of the Corporate Commercial department at the law firm Habib Al Mulla. Ms. Al-Rifai joins Squire Patton Boggs from the Corporate department of Helmy, Hamza & Partners (Baker & McKenzie) in Cairo.
Smith focuses on M&A, private equity, corporate finance, and commercial structures such as JVs, together with corporate governance and regulatory matters. With 30 years’ experience of global corporate and business law, Smith has advised clients across the Middle East, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman, and in numerous Asian countries, such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and India. He has spent over a dozen years practicing in East and South-East Asia, including as managing partner of the Hong Kong offices of Canadian firm Stikeman Elliott. Smith has experience of a wide range of sectors, particularly financial services, manufacturing, real estate, infrastructure and construction, and hotels and leisure. Among his representative cross-border work are advising a New York PE fund’s Singapore-based operating subsidiary on the USD300 million acquisition of two Indonesian specialty chemicals manufacturers; acting for a France-based hotel management company on its entry into the UAE market and the development of three hotel properties in Abu Dhabi and Dubai; and advising a US-based defence manufacturer on the procurement of surveillances systems by the UAE’s Union Defence Force. Qualified in Ontario, Hong Kong, and England and Wales, Smith is also a regular speaker at international legal forums and business summits in the Middle East, Asia and North America.
Tomas Cerdan is known for his extensive capital markets, restructuring and other capital raising expertise. He has acted for leading investment banks, issuers, borrowers and sovereign wealth funds on a broad range of transactions across Europe, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Africa. Among his work in the MENA region is advising Qatar Holding on its USD2.7 billion investment in bonds of Banco Santander exchangeable into domestic units of Banco Santander Brasil, and advising Goldman Sachs International on a pre-IPO structured financing for an Egyptian property development company. Cerdan has advised Saudi Hollandi Capital in connection with a private placement by Saudi Hollandi Bank of SAR775 million (USD207 million) Mudaraba certificates due 2018 callable with step up in 2013 qualifying as Tier II capital for Saudi Arabian regulatory purposes, a transaction that was awarded Equity Deal of the Year 2008 at the annual Islamic Finance News Awards.
Radwa Al-Rifai has seven years’ experience of advising on complex corporate, commercial and finance law matters in Egypt. She has acted for a range of domestic and multinational clients on M&A, corporate structuring, finance and banking issues, IPOs, licensing and regulatory requirements. Among her representative work are advising a major hotel group on an EGP 350 million land acquisition, licensing and regulation transaction; advising a multinational financial services corporation on new product launches in the Egyptian market; and advising a regional insurance group on the compliance of their takaful policy with local laws and contracts. Bi-lingual in Arabic and English, Al-Rifai is a graduate of Indiana and Cairo universities and qualified at the Egyptian Bar.
