Banking & Finance

Our banking & finance lawyers have led the market with complex transaction types and financial instruments that are now being used across South Africa, facilitating groundbreaking transactions in both primary and secondary markets. Consistently recognised as leaders in their respective fields in international law firm publications, the team advises all the major financial institutions and banks in South Africa, including their investment banking divisions and a number of large corporates. We also advise international banks and law firms relating to offshore finance transactions.

Our lawyers have extensive experience in syndicated and bilateral finance, project and limited recourse finance, leveraged and acquisition finance, structured finance, preference share funding, hybrid debt instruments, commodity and trade finance, debt capital markets transactions and securitisations. In the leveraged and acquisition finance field, our experienced transactional lawyers have advised on a vast number of private equity transactions and other public-to-private transactions in South Africa, including in the consumer products, retail and financial services sectors.

Experience comes with handling the largest transactions in Southern Africa

In the project finance, infrastructure and public-private partnership fields, the team has represented lenders and borrowers in some of the largest transactions of this type in Southern Africa. The industry sectors involved include mining and exploration, roads, prisons, hospitals, water, accommodation and renewable energy.

In syndicated and bilateral financing (relating to debt, preference shares and combinations thereof), our banking & finance lawyers have advised funders and borrowers / issuers across various industry sectors including consumer products, retailing, mining and exploration, financial services and telecommunications, with a special focus on medium to large local and international transactions.

The team also has extensive experience in the debt capital markets field and regularly advises arrangers, dealers, corporate issuers, parastatals and rating.

Agencies on bond issues, domestic medium- term note programmes and high-yield bonds, also advising local banks in respect of their European note programmes.

In the securitisation field, only a small number of synthetic securitisations have been undertaken in South Africa; all of them involving our banking & finance lawyers.

The below matters are a select number of firm matters. To find out more, contact enquiries@werksmans.com