Our work
- Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (Kenya) represented Atlas, a global leader in industrial solutions and services, offering products and services for various industries and applications. Our Kenya-based employment team advised Atlas on reviewing its human resources and employment handbook, including its analysis against Kenya employment law, and making recommendations to ensure Atlas’ internal policies are in line with international best practices. We also prepared a memorandum of advice regarding compliance with employment law, which included an analysis of how to conduct a disciplinary hearing in Kenya; conducted a disciplinary hearing for an Atlas senior employee, which involved drafting the required notices on behalf of Atlas, chairing the committee as well as advising on Kenyan employment law requirements for the committee; and reviewed an employment contract for a senior employee within Atlas’ Nigeria-based subsidiary. These matters required significant expertise in relation to international best practice for employment law and contracts.
- Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (Kenya) represented N22 Africa Fund (D) and N22 Africa Fund (E), the leading private equity fund established in Sweden. Our Kenya-based corporate/M&A team assisted Norrskken 22, a technology growth fund, in conducting a due diligence on Vee8 International Holdings, the target company, an automotive technology development company that builds solutions aimed at enabling and enhancing commerce within the automotive sector; and its subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. We were further involved in negotiating and drafting two SAFEs and two side letters pertaining to two tranches of investments being made to the target. The due diligence required extensive expertise in connection with compliance requirements to the automobile industry. This transaction involved conducting a due diligence over five entities located in the US, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda over a short period of time. Due to the level of urgency, we conducted an innovative, partly limited due diligence over the areas that were considered high-risk and carried out a confirmatory due diligence over the low-risk areas. This allowed us to obtain warranties on the low-risk areas and indemnities over those areas considered high-risk, with minimal push back. Further, negotiating the rights in the SAFE proved challenging as the target company had existing SAFE agreements with investors and was looking to obtain additional investment from other investors. We therefore had to consider what existing investors have been granted based on their level of investment and negotiate the rights our client was requesting for, taking into consideration that other investors were quickly investing into the target.
Africa Corporate Guide
This guide covers common questions relating to the process of incorporating and setting up in various African jurisdictions.
Many of our clients are looking to expand their African footprint.
Therefore it is incumbent on us to understand the nuances, intricacies and ultimately the legal requirements of setting up in each of the countries in Africa. The purpose of this guide is to simplify the position in relation to incorporation and setting up in various African jurisdictions and to provide our clients with an overview of their obligations in relation to this.
Click here to read the Nigeria chapter.