Profile details
About Pervez Akhtar
Pervez is a partner in our Global Transactions team in the UAE, based in Dubai. He is renowned for being one of the leading corporate/M&A lawyers in the MENA region.
His practice focuses on private equity, M&A and joint ventures in the financial services, insurance, energy, utilities, transport, logistics, consumer goods, retail, education, healthcare, telecoms and media sectors.
His clients are typically regional and international financial investors and corporates doing business throughout MENA, the rest of Africa, and south and southeast Asia. Pervez also advises sovereign wealth funds and government investment vehicles on transactions integral to their strategic investment and economic diversification programmes.
Well known for the time and attention he devotes to transactions and his sensible approach to negotiating, he is recognised by the market as one of the region's leading corporate transactional lawyers and is personally ranked in the leading legal research directories for his work in relation to countries throughout MENA and beyond.
Recent work
- Advising First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (FAB) on the sale of a 60 per cent stake in its payment business, Magnati - Sole Proprietorship LLC (Magnati), to Brookfields Business Partners L.P. (Brookfields).
- Advising Kuwait Finance House K.P.S.C. (KFH) on its cross-border acquisition of 100% of the issued shares of Ahli United Bank B.S.C. (AUB) through a conditional tender offer by way of share swap. The deal was the first of its kind in the region and valued at approximately USD$11.6 billion.
- Advising The Emirate of Dubai on the carve-out of the Emirate's tolling system (Salik) into a public joint stock company, and the listing of the company on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), which involved extensive regulatory advice, including approval of Admission to Listing and trading on the DFM.
- Advising Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADQ) on the primary issuance and successful private placement of AED 4 billion of shares in, and the subsequent listing of, AD Ports Group on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, which included extensive regulatory advice and approvals.
- Advising the Founder of DAMAC Properties on his $599mn public tender offer for the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of DAMAC followed by a squeeze out of minorities and de-listing of DAMAC.
- Advising CVC and its co-investors’ on its acquisition of a significant minority (approx. 30 per cent.) stake in GEMS Education.
- Advising Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ) on its acquisition of a majority stake in Nabil Foods, a specialised Jordanian-based manufacturer of frozen and chilled food products, from The Carlyle Group and the Rassam family.
- Advising Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company B.S.C, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, on its additional investment in McLaren Group Limited.