Global law firm Baker McKenzie’s Africa-focused Banking & Finance team has won the EMEA Finance African Banking Awards pan-African Law Firm of the Year for 2023. This is the third year in a row that the team has received this award.

The team is known as the adviser of choice to financial institutions working in Africa and is renowned for its strong presence in bank-to-bank syndicated lending, export and structured trade finance and development bank financing across the continent. The Africa-focused Banking & Finance team has been particularly active as legal counsel in multiple export finance and structured trade finance transactions for key financial institutions in Africa, leading the way on many key financing transactions for both the private and public sector in jurisdictions such as Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Nigeria, Sénégal, South Africa,Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

The team has extensive experience in the financial sector, advising national development financial institutions, multilateral development banks and export credit agencies on a wide range of transactions, including acquisition finance, project finance, restructuring and insolvency, derivatives, financial services and regulation, securitisation and capital markets, both globally and in Africa. 

For example, the team recently advised on Project Gleam, the EUR 1.29-billion dual-tranche Euler Hermes-supported secured term loan facility, and the EUR 92-million commercial term loan facility to support the Angola Rural Electrification Project. One team from across the firm’s global Africa hubs worked on this deal, led by London Banking & Finance Partner Luka Lightfoot and including Nick Tostivin (Banking & Finance, Partner, London), Kathrin Marchant (Banking & Finance, Partner, Frankfurt), and supported by a number of key associates, namely Alex Taylor and Josh Mastin-Lee (both Banking & Finance, Associates, London), and Marta Zuliamis (Banking & Finance, Senior Associate, Frankfurt).

"This award highlights our One Global Team approach to connecting seamlessly across borders and practice areas, collaborating with our clients as partners, and providing solutions to their most complex transactions across the continent. Our work across Africa also aligns with the firm's focus on sustainability and advising on transactions that are net positive for the continent. We are grateful to our clients for the strong and enduring relationships we have forged with them over the years, working together on many of Africa’s most exciting transactions," commented Michael Foundethakis, Africa Steering Committee Chair, Partner, and Global Head of Project and Trade & Export Finance, Baker McKenzie.