Elliott Wood
Head of Banking & Finance | Head of Private Equity
Elliott Wood is a Director advising across the Banking & Finance; Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions; and Financial Services Regulation practice areas. He specialises in banking and finance matters (including acquisition and leveraged finance; aviation finance; and corporate finance); mergers & acquisitions; private equity; structured finance; syndicated and bilateral financing structures; international transactions; acquisitions and management/leveraged buy-outs; and restructuring of corporate entities. Elliott is named as a recommended lawyer in Banking and Finance by the Legal500 (2014-2018) and has served on the Werksmans Executive Committee.
Years of Experience: 24 years
PRACTICE AREAS
- Banking & Finance
- Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions
- Private Equity
- Banking & Finance (including acquisition and leverage finance, aviation finance, corporate finance)
- M&A
- Private equity
- Structured finance
- Syndicated and bilateral financing structures
- International transactions
- Acquisitions and management/leverage buy-outs
- Restructuring of corporate entities
- Acted for LIfe Healthcare in regards to its disposal of its AMG business in Europe, which was worth R21b (GBP910m).
- Acted as legal counsel to Blue Label Telecoms Limited as a shareholder of and funder to Cell C and the recapitalisation of Cell C.
- Advised Blue Label in regards to the multi-billion senior secured working capital facilities, airtime purchase and preference share subscription as part of the recap of Cell C Limited which was awarded the Bonds, Loans & ESG Capital Markets Africa Award for Corporate Restructuring Deal of the Year.
- Advises key banks (both local and international) on various aspects including transactional deals and restructures, both syndicated transactions and bi-lateral transactions.
- Advising Vitol Group in respect of the financing of its acquisition of Petroliam Nasional Bhd's 74% stake in Engen Ltd. The acquisition by Vitol Group of such interest will result in the formation of the second-largest fuel retailer in Africa.
- Assisted various other corporates (listed and non-listed) in respect of capital raising – both debt and equity.
- Advised RMB Corvest in regards to the acquisition of Halewood International SA.
- Advises various other private equity proponents in various transactions (including entry and exit transactions and restructuring).
- Admitted as a Notary, 2004
- Admitted as an Attorney, 2002
- Certificate in Sports Law (cum laude), Rand Afrikaans University
- Certificate in Financial Markets and Banking Law, University of the Witwatersrand
- Aviation Finance Course (Frankfurt 2013)
- Higher Diploma in Company Law (cum laude), University of the Witwatersrand,
- LLB, University of the Witwatersrand (2000)
- BCom, University of the Witwatersrand (1998
- Ranked lawyer (Band 5) by Chambers Global | 2025 | Corporate/M&A
- Ranked lawyer (Band 3) by Chambers Global | 2024 - 2025 | Private Equity
- Ranked as a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 | 2024 | Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions
- Ranked as a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 | 2024 | Banking & Finance
- Advised Life Healthcare in its disposal of 100% of its interest in its European based diagnostics business Alliance Medical Group (AMG) to iCON Infrastructure.This deal was awarded the Deal of The Year (2023) by DealMaker's.
- Ranked lawyer (Band 5) by Chambers Global | 2020 – 2022, 2024 | Corporate/M&A
- Ranked as a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 | 2014 – 2018 | Banking & Finance; 2015 | Acquisition and Leveraged Finance
- Ranked as a rising star by IFLR 1000 | 2018 – 2020 | Banking and M&A
- Ranked as highly regarded by IFLR 1000 | 2020 – 2022, 2024| M&A |Banking and Finance
- Member of BUSCO at Werksmans.
- Served on EXCO at Werksmans.
- Lectured on occassion at both Rand Afrikaans University and Pretoria University as part of their Sports Law courses
- Updated and revised certain chapters of Butterworths' Forms and Precedents.
- Author of the chapter "Corporate Governance in Sport" in the book "Introduction to Sports Law in South Africa" edited by by R Cloete, Butterworths, 2005.
